The Human Condition
by FinntheManlyHuman
Summary: As Finn comes to terms with being single again, a chance event leads him face-first into Fionna, and his life in Ooo is forever changed. (AU Finn/FP breakup)
1. Coming to Terms

**A/N:** This is my first shot at writing these, so reviews are welcome! I don't own Adventure Time, but it would be sweet if I did. Also this will contain references to anything that's happened in the series, so potential spoilers I guess? Also fair warning, this story is a pretty slow burn, but things to ramp up, so stick with it :)

* * *

It was a pretty normal day for Finn so far.

Early to rise, as usual, and a morning spent with one of Jake's over-elaborate meals and video games with BMO. A lunchtime jam session with Marceline, a stopover in the Candy Kingdom for tea with Princess Bubblegum, and to top it all off a surprise kidnapping of Wildberry Princess by the Ice King that he could foil. Well, technically Gunter had accidentally foiled that one already just as Finn and Jake crashed heroically in, but Wildberry Princess had thanked them for giving her a lift home anyways. It was a pretty normal day.

Which was good, as Finn really needed some normalcy to deal with his broken heart. And his burns.

He rode Jake quietly as his dog took him away from the Ice Kingdom. Wildberry Princess slept soundly in a fleshy divot in Jake's back behind him and Jake was remaining silent to give Finn some time to think. A cold breeze swept down from the mountain and across the magic dog, but Finn only smiled and removed his hat and let the wind and snow soothe his burned face.

He'd seen Flame Princess' reaction coming. He hadn't expected Flame King to jump in on the action too though. Finn quietly reminded himself not to walk into a kingdom of evil denizens when his intention was to directly upset their princess by breaking up with her (He thought it was unnecessarily evil of them to hold him there until Flamo's spell wore off.) He wished that he hadn't had to dump her, but as their relationship continued to develop it became more and more clear to Finn that his influence wasn't turning her good. If anything showing her how to dungeon crawl and telling her it was ok to let loose on bad guys had just coaxed more of her destructive side out. He sighed, and cautiously ran his hand over his singed face. His golden hair blew quietly behind him, having finally started to get long again since he last shaved it.

"Hey man, you ok up there?" Jake's voice tentatively asked.

"Yeah, just enjoying some quiet time. I've been so busy keeping my mind off of everything that I haven't had any time to think, you know?"

"I hear you Finn, sometimes I like to just sit on Lady's roof with her and think about stuff. Uhh..." Jake rubbed one of his elongated paws behind his neck, "Ah, sorry. Probably don't want to hear about my girlfriend right now." Finn just shook his head and rubbed a spot on Jake's back.

"No worries bro, Lady's cool. To be honest it'll be nice to not have to have PB make me so much burn cream anyways. I know they say love hurts but seriously, she was made of freaking fire dude." Jake and Finn shared a laugh, which made both of their hearts feel fuller than they had in days. Finn had dragged his feet on breaking up with Flame Princess, wanting to find an easier way to do it. Jake had insisted that he be a man about it however, and he'd also hidden his copy of _Mind Games_ so Finn couldn't get any bad ideas from it. After seeing the state he was in when the boy had returned however, Jake had regretted letting him go alone like Finn had insisted on. Still, it had been three days now and Finn's wounds were starting to mend. He'd cried, screamed, sighed, and raged, and now he was starting to get back to the Finn that Jake knew and loved.

The duo dropped Wildberry Princess off at her home and headed back to their tree fort, looking forward to a good night's sleep after their adventure time. They chatted a bit, some gossip about the Candy Kingdom, Jake told Finn some funny stories about his kids, but Finn eventually fell silent again. Jake couldn't help but feel a gnawing worry in his mind.

_So what's next for Finn? Bubblegum's too old, Flame Princess is too evil... I can't think of anyone else in Ooo who he'd like... I don't know how to help you Finn._

The pair arrived home, spent a few minutes relaying the day's events to BMO, and then turned in. Finn climbed into his sleeping bag and sighed as he lied down, deep in thought. Jake curled up in his drawer, casting a concerned glance to his best friend and brother.

"Night Finn, had a good time today!" Jake forced some extra enthusiasm into his voice as he spoke, hoping to get through to the boy. Finn rose slightly, looking back at Jake, and gave him a genuine smile.

"Me too buddy, thanks for being you." Finn lowered himself back to his bed and sighed again, though this time it was less sad and more content. Jake also allowed himself to relax slightly, feeling a smile on his own face as he realized something important about his closest pal.

_Yeah. Finn, you're going to be okay._

Finn spent a long time thinking that night. He had to admit, he honestly felt... better now. Objectively, he knew breaking up with the Flame Princess was the right thing to do. He had tried everything he could to turn her good over the past few months, but he knew he wasn't the person who could do it. Maybe somebody else in Ooo had what it took, heck maybe the Magic Man could teach her a lesson, but she had spiralled too far into her own love of fiery devastation for him to feel safe just being with her much less trying to teach her to be good. And he knew he couldn't beat her up or smite her like he so easily could with other evil creatures, she was too important to him. So he did what he thought was right, and let her go so they could both live their own way. A small part of his brain rang with an epiphany, as he suddenly had some understanding of Bubblegum's interactions with him. He hadn't thought it fair either, but she had a duty and had turned him away to serve it. A little reserved bit of old bitterness dried up then and Finn felt a little more alive than he had in three days. He slept fitfully, having gained a small sense of closure in two different parts of his life.


	2. Mail Time!

Morning came shining through their window and BMO started buzzing, rousing the boys from their sleep to start the day. Jake was thrilled to see Finn's usual energy returned to him. Finn leapt out of bed and raced downstairs to find breakfast. The boys ate a hearty meal, though neither of them had any idea what BMO had wrapped in their individual breakfast burritos. Finn donned his usual clothes, only barely pausing to reflect on the severely singed right ear of his hat, and Jake gave a call to Lady to check on the kids. Ready for their day, the pair strode to the front door, threw it open, and were surprised to see Princess Cookie with his hand raised, about to knock. Finn raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, hey Princess Cookie, we were just heading out. Something we can help you with?" The cookie shook his head and pointed at Jake.

"Nah Finn not you, thanks though. I'm here because I have a letter that was delivered to me by a banana-guard last night. I need my mailman to deliver it to its recipient!" Jake stared at him for a moment, then burst into a fit of joy.

"YES! YES! YES! Oh Princess Cookie, I'll happily deliver your mail! Just one second!" With that, he raced upstairs. Finn whistled while he waited politely as the house filled with the din of Jake tearing his drawers apart looking for his uniform. He scrambled back downstairs and saluted Princess Cookie in his proper mailman regalia.

"Reporting for mail delivery duty your highness!" Cookie gave a chuckle and smile and handed Jake the letter.

"Here you go Jake. I'm trusting you!" With that, Cookie skipped away merrily over the hills and out of sight. Finn looked excitedly at Jake.

"Hey dude, who's the letter for?" Jake protectively held the letter to his chest, raising his chin at Finn.

"No way man, it's a mailman's solemn duty to keep the privacy of the sender and recipient of mail intact. It's why we alone are charged with the delivery of such important items." Finn whistled low and took a step back as Jake held the letter in front of his own face, carefully reading who it was meant to be delivered to. With a grand flourish he swept up his postbag, stuffed the letter inside, and pointed at the doorway.

"Finn! Do you know what time it is?" Finn looked at him blankly for a second, then hazarded a guess.

"Mail Time?"

"MAAAAIIIIIIIIL TIIIIIIME!" With that, Jake charged out the open door, slamming it behind him. Finn stood in the fort for a few seconds blinking while he digested the past two minutes' events in his head. His thoughts were cut off by a knock at the door. He opened it, and looked out to see Jake standing outside.

"Hey Finn, PB sent you a letter!" Finn resisted the temporary urge to slap his forehead with his palm and simply took the letter that Jake now held out to him. It was pink, and had candy decorations bordering it.

"Huh, that's new. Usually Bubblegum calls or sends someone. Why'd she write a letter?" Jake huffed a breath on his fingertips and rubbed them against his shoulder.

"Maybe somebody told her that the Grass Kingdom has an awesome heroic mailman and she wanted to test his mettle?" Finn opened the envelope, pulling out a pink piece of paper inside. He looked it over, and smiled.

_Dear Finn and Jake:  
I'm writing to ask you to come to the desert lands, as there have been reports of lightning, flashes of light, and weird sounds coming from the desert near Spiky Village. Also, Princess Cookie told me last week that the Grass Kingdom has a wicked fast postal service, so I trust this will get to you quickly. I'll be waiting!  
- Princess Bubblegum_

"HAH! See? I totally called it Finn! Best. Mailman. Ever." Finn shook his head and double checked his pack, deciding to add the demon blood sword, just to be on the safe side.

"Well, you did get that letter here almost immediately. If you're done with Mail Time though, I think we might have an adventure on our hands."

Jake ran the pair to the Desert Lands double-time, both of them excited to have a new occurrence to explore. Jake was also pleased to see Finn's spirits remaining high, as he laughed and whooped and swung his sword around on Jake's back, shadow fighting imaginary monsters. They reached the Spiky Village and could see not too far into the desert that Bubblegum had put together a large pink tent under an area of the desert where ominous black clouds were gathering. They arrived in time to see the Princess giving instructions to some banana guards who were busy putting the finishing touches on the makeshift encampment. She turned and smiled at the boys as they approached her.

"Finn! Jake! I'm so glad you got here quickly! Cookie was right about that postal service, wowee! Anyways, look!" She pointed at a weird shimmering light in the middle of the tent. It was about four feet high, and looked like a weird bright blue mirror that was made of liquid. The shining object oscillated in the air, bobbing slightly to its own rhythm. Finn looked it over and looked back at Bubblegum.

"Ok, cool light PB. What's it have to do with us? Wait, is it a MONSTER?" He drew his sword and jumped between the light and the Princess, waving the sword at it and narrowing his eyes. Bubblegum gave a small sigh a put a hand on Finn's shoulder, pulling him back.

"No silly, it's not a monster. It's a portal!" Finn and Jake both looked at her with wide eyes, which they turned in unison to the portal. Jake pawed the air in front of him.

"Oh oh oh oh, I love portals! Where's this one go? Wait, where'd it come from? I don't remember there ever being any portals out here. You Finn?" Finn looked back at him and shook his head, he couldn't remember any portals in the desert. Bubblegum interrupted the pair.

"That's why I called you both here, nobody knows where it goes. I've asked the Spiky Chief, Breakfast and Toast Princess, I even had my banana guards find some tart thieves who hadn't been paralyzed! This portal just showed up yesterday during a big lightning storm. Will you see where it leads? I need to know if it's dangerous or not." Finn and Jake looked at each other for a moment, big adventurous smiles on their faces, before nodding vehemently at the princess.

"You came to the right bros m'lady!" Finn declared with a bow, Jake mimicking him.

"Yessirree you did! C'mere Finn, hold one of my arms while I check it out. If my hand pinches you, pull me out again!" Finn held a hand out between Jake and the portal.

"No way man, you've got Lady and your kids to worry about now, leave the dangerous stuff to me!" Finn pounded a fist to his chest, "I don't have anybody... to..." He petered off, having reminded himself that he was alone again. Jake winced and patted him on the back, morphing his lips over onto the hand he'd placed on Finn.

"Hey! Finn!" Jake's hand whispered, "C'mon dude you can mope again when we get home, gotta stay strong for Bubblegum and the Candy People." Finn shook his head, regaining his composure and resuming his heroic stance.

"Ahhhh, anyways, I'll go! Jake, give me a hand!" Bubblegum looked concerned as he walked closer to the portal.

"Be careful Finn!"

Jake placed a hand in Finn's, and the boy drew his sword in the other. He braced himself for a moment, took a deep breath, and charged at the portal shouting "AAAAADVENTTUUUUURE!" as he plunged through.


	3. Ooo's on First?

**A/N:** Honestly could not think of a better way to show that the scenes were cutting to the other side of the portal other than the [*]'s. If its too distracting or if there's a standard for this kind of thing I'm unaware of, let me know.

* * *

Finn stared in confusion as he stared at the pink tent that surrounded him. He looked at Princess Bubblegum, but had to put down his sword and rub his eyes because he wasn't seeing her right. Jake looked all wrong too, all white with whiskers. Finn's warrior senses kicked in after a beat and he whipped his sword up again, seeing that Bubblegum wasn't Bubblegum either. Some weird pink guy with a very similar fashion sense was standing in her place, and "Jake" appeared to be a large cat. Finn pointed his sword at them menacingly.

"You stay back you mimicky fiends! Thought you could trick me did you?" Finn yelled at the imposters, who viewed him with a mixture of shock and fear. The pink man spoke up, with a soft and questioning voice.

"Fi-... Fionna? Is that you? Are... are you a boy now?" Finn stared at the man for a moment, feeling his head gears bog down. He looked at his hand to make sure Jake's was still clasped in his, and when he did he noticed Jake's hand was pulling on his arm to return. Finn whipped his gaze back at the two beings before him and hissed at them as he returned to the portal, turning and launching himself back through. Or at least he would have, if he hadn't hit a solid object and bounced off. Finn hit the sand reeling, feeling fuzzy and having a strange image in his head of having walked face first into a weird mirror.

[*]

Fionna fell to the ground in a daze, her sword momentarily left on the ground as she rubbed her sore forehead. That portal was lame, making her walk into a mirror like that. She took a moment to gather her thoughts and then remembered where she was and rolled back to her feet, scooping her sword back up again. The two beings before her looked concerned and scared, neither had moved an inch since she'd jumped through. The one who looked like a girl Gumball had her hands over her mouth, and the yellow dog had his mouth open in shock but an eyebrow noticeably raised. The dog spoke to her, slowly, as if he didn't understand what was happening either.

"Finn? Is, uhh, is that you? Cause if it is, there are going to be some _really_ unhappy princesses in Ooo." Fionna scoffed, almost on reflex, at his comment.

"What princesses? Ooo is all dumb princes with issues. Unless you mean the Ice Queen..." She grabbed up her sword again and growled at the pair, "You aren't working for the Ice Queen are you? Cause I will seriously mess you up if you're trying to steal Gumball AGAIN!" The dog shook his head with fervor.

"No no no no, we don't like Ice royalty around these parts lady, no worries there. But if you're not Finn-

[*]

"-then where's Fionna?" The pink man asked Finn, who stared at him curiously now.

"Fionna? Who's that? I'm Finn the Human, from Ooo. Who are you guys?" The pink man's expression became more puzzled than before.

"Why, I'm Prince Gumball of the Candy Kingdom, but I think you're mistaken, there's only one human in Ooo-"

[*]

"And my name's Fionna the Human." She said with certainty, "I don't know who this 'Finn' guy is though, and I've met most of the inhabitants of Ooo!"

"Hi Fionna, I'm Princess Bubblegum of the Candy Kingdom. Umm, are you sure you're not, you know, a hyooman?"

[*]

"No, I'm a Human." Finn raised the side of his hat to show his neck to Gumball, "See? No gills."

* * *

Though they were in two separate worlds, both Jake and Cake felt very disconcerted by the events playing out before them. Their respective Gum rulers' inquisitive minds were handling this fine, but the magic pets were becoming scared for their friends. Both tugged a little harder on the humans' hands, hoping to get them back to their proper worlds.

* * *

Finn turned again, gazing into the portal. He approached it more slowly this time, getting his face right up to it. He faintly saw his reflection again, but this time without butting his head against it. As he gazed, he started to notice differences in the reflection. For starters his hat's ears were too long. And was he wearing a skirt? He didn't remember being so curvy either.

[*]

Fionna stared at her reflection with a frown of consternation. She wasn't wearing her usual socks, and her sword was wrong. And where the heck did her neck go?

[*]

The pair of adventurers cautiously pushed against the portal, and found that they could push into it, but they met resistance when their hands pressed against one another. They both stood staring for a moment, before they each moved to opposite sides and started sliding through the portal back to their own world. As they passed one another, they both got a weird fractured view of the other on the way through.

Finn stepped back into what was admittedly pretty much the same room he had just left, but was relieved to see Jake and Bubblegum waiting for him. They ran up to him and hugged him, all three sharing a pretty weirded out look at what had just happened. Finn explained the lookalikes he had seen and Jake told him about the girl who looked like him that had come through.

"Finn man, she was cute! You should have seen her! A little twitchy though, like you get when you're all scared and fight-y." Finn couldn't help but think about the fair blonde who he had passed on his way home again. He looked towards the portal with curiosity.

Fionna exchanged similar accounts with Gumball and Cake, and was fascinated to hear that the boy she had seen had in fact been real. And apparently a human too! Cake gave her the lowdown.

"He was a fine looking adventurer too honey, with boyish charm and a strong sword arm. A little jumpy though, looked a lot like you do when Ice Queen threatens Gumball." Fionna couldn't stop herself from looking over to the portal and thinking about the curious boy she'd seen.


	4. The Girl Through the Portal

**A/N:** Sorry if this one drags a bit, I was trying to find an appropriate pacing for the situation but it made this feel like a beast. I promise things will pick up in following chapters.

* * *

"Alright Finn, you went through once, and it didn't appear immediately dangerous. But before I let anyone else near this portal I'm going to have to do a whole lot of research." Bubblegum finished packing up a host of notes, pencils, and a couple books that she'd been pouring over for the past half hour. "Jake, can take me to the library? Maybe Turtle Princess has a book about what's happening here."

"Sure thing PB! Finn, you comin'?" Jake pawed out of the tent and immediately grew, stretching his tail down to wrap up Princess Bubblegum and depositing her on his back. Finn looked up at the pair, and then cast a look to the shimmering portal. He didn't think he was quite ready to walk away from it yet, that girl was entirely too intriguing.

"No Jake, I'm going to stay here and make sure nothing else walks through that portal. It may have all been a trap right? To get us off our guard with weird not-us versions of ourselves." Finn didn't think the small fib was too bad. It was true, something else could walk through that portal, and maybe Finn would have to fight it. He didn't think that was going to be the case though, as the feeling he'd gotten both from the girl and the pink man Gumball hadn't been one of danger. They'd seemed... familiar almost. Finn idly scratched at his hat's burned ear as he started to wonder about the implications of it all. Jake just nodded and tapped his giant head.

"Good thinking Finn! Man would Ooo be in trouble without you! Be careful man, save any big bad guys until I get back alright?" Finn smiled and nodded at his friend and Jake started bounding off towards the library, the Princess clinging to his fur. She turned back to Finn as she retreated away.

"Stay out of the portal Finn! I'll find out if it's safe!" With that, the pair was gone over the dunes and away.

Finn sat in front of the portal, his fingers idly tracing pictures in the sand as his head tumbled over what he'd seen. His brain kept coming back to what Bubblegum had told him, that she'd announced herself as 'Fionna the Human'. She'd even showed her lack of gills to them like he had to her friends. "A human..." He breathed out to nobody in particular. "A real human, like me, and a girl..." He looked again at the portal, grappling with a sudden urge to fling himself through and meet the girl. But he'd heard Bubblegum, and knew that she was probably right. That portal WAS dangerous, the only problem is that danger was kind of Finn's element, he wasn't scared of it. He took a steadying breath and rose.

_Well I can at least take a look at it, that won't hurt anything right?_

Finn approached the portal once more, this time without his blade drawn and with no battle cry on his lips. He gazed into the shimmering, blue depths and saw nothing but whatever weird stuff the portal was made of. He sighed, having secretly hoped he'd see that girl again.

_What if she isn't real? What if she only existed because I went through the portal? Uurgh, I have enough to think about! I don't need this!_

Finn put a single hand forward towards the portal, not sure what he was expecting to happen. As it came to rest against the blue film he felt the same pressure he had before when trying to leave. Was her hand against the portal again? He scrambled to his feet and got as close to the portal as he could, squinting his gaze into it. And he was rewarded when he saw the same watery reflection of 'Fionna' on the other side looking back at him. They just started at each other for several long moments, both with a look of curiosity and concern plastered on their faces. Finn finally took a breath and raised a hand, waving at her. He felt a weird sense of relief when she looked at his hand, smiled, and waved back. At least she wasn't _just_ his weird reflection, she seemed to be alive.

_Well now what do I do? I can't just __**not**__ talk to her. But Bubblegum said to stay out of the portal..._

It only took Finn a moment to find his answer: she'd told him to stay _out_, not to not put anything else _in_! He held up a finger on one hand, and then held up both palms towards her, hoping she'd get his message to wait there. He dashed off to cobble together whatever Bubblegum had left and was relieved to find a pencil and some paper. He ran back with his new tools in hand, scribbling out a quick message to her and pushing the paper and pencil into the portal. He held his breath and looked through, seeing her still standing there and looking at his offered items. She tentatively reached forward and took them, sliding them through the portal without either of them crossing it.

_Yes! Score one for Finn!_

[*]

Fionna looked at the note she'd received and had to fight hard to keep her breathing steady.

_"Hi there, I'm Finn the Human from Ooo! Who are you?"_

It was a simple note, and it didn't even take her a full moment to decide to write back.

_"Hello Finn, I'm Fionna the Human. I'm from Ooo too, but I don't think it's the same Ooo"_

She pushed the paper and pencil back through, a weird thrill shooting up her spine. Despite the strange manner of communication, this was exciting! Fionna loved meeting new people, and if Finn was actually a human... She stopped, not letting herself get her hopes up.

_One step at a time girl. One step at a time._

[*]

Finn recovered the paper, reading her part and feeling his own rush. His mind immediately filled with a thousand questions to ask her about herself, "her" Ooo, and the portal. His started to write about 30 different things down at once when he stopped himself. This portal was still dangerous, and a total unknown. Fionna may be an interesting prospect, but Finn had absolutely no patience for being messed with right now. His next question was as brief as he could make it.

"_Are you evil?"_

He pushed it through and saw her read it, smile, and shake her head as she wrote a response. She abruptly stopped though, and glared knives into him as she wrote the second part. Finn was visibly shaken, suddenly very nervous to read the note she was returning. It came through and he snatched it quickly, not wanting to dawdle near the portal until he read that note.

"_As if! I'm Ooo's number one adventuress buddy. And I'm warning you, if __**you're**__ evil I will jump through this hole and jack you up so bad you'll regret ever opening this portal dude!"_

Finn cracked a smile, if nothing else this girl knew how to deal with bad guys.

[*]

Fionna bounced from foot to foot anxiously as Finn read her reply. If he was bad, she wanted to see him tremble in fear so she'd know to grab her sword and go extract some answers. If he was good, she wanted to jump through the portal anyways and get some answers. Gumball's warning floated into her head but she brushed it away. That guy had some nerve talking to her about safety, how many times had she saved his kingdom from his own crazy experiments? Even if he was a threat, Finn didn't look that dangerous, Fionna was pretty sure she could take him in a sword fight. He seemed to have finished writing his response and was pushing it through. She took it and looked it over, feeling relief once more wash through her.

"_Not evil, promise! I'm actually my Ooo's number one adventurer too. Small world huh?"_

She felt satisfied at the moment with the response; she assumed that if their Ooo had to have an adventurer too than one so similar to herself made sense in her head. She raised the pencil and stopped. There were hundreds of questions she could write to Finn, and yet she didn't want to write anything. She looked around, it had only been about 10 minutes since Cake and Gumball had left meaning they wouldn't even be at the library yet. It'd likely several hours before they returned, and she knew that there was no chance she could just sit here sending notes for that long. She steeled herself as a reckless thought popped into her head. She wrote Finn a quick message and sent it, then quickly gathered her things.

[*]

Finn could only stare at the note in his hand, his breath speeding up and his heart pounding in his chest.

_"I'm coming through."_

He looked up to see Fionna gone from the front of the portal, and he immediately scrambled back a step and scooped up his sword. He paused for a moment, considered it, and then lowered the blade. He just couldn't believe that she was evil, she'd seemed too nice, too... adventure-y, to be a bad guy. Or bad girl. Whatever. He looked at the portal as it shimmered more and starting to vibrate as the first hint of golden hair and bunny ears poked through it.


	5. Extra: PB and Jake

**A/N:** Sort of a popcorn "aside" chapter I'm posting while I re-write chapter 5.

* * *

Princess Bubblegum sorted out a handful of books that Turtle Princess had provided when she relayed the story of the portal and the sort-of doppelgangers on the other side. She sat at a huge table with them all sprawled out, along with her notes from the site. Placing her glasses on her face, she began to methodically pour over book after book, looking for keywords or illustrations that could make her life easier. Jake sat in a chair to the side, huffing as he caught his breath. Bubblegum had pushed him awfully hard to get to the library so fast, and he had to admit he was getting out of shape compared to a few years ago. He drummed his fingers on the table, listening to the frantic page turning and muttering coming from the princess. He raised an eyebrow.

"Uhh hey PB what's your hurry? That portal didn't seem dangerous, and Finn can handle anything that comes out of that thing anyways!" He looked at her face, slightly concerned to see the edges of science-y madness creeping in. She turned to him with a severe look.

"That one may not be, but what if there are more? We've only got one Finn and he can't guard them all, so if any of them are dangerous then I need to know! Besides, I honestly don't know if Finn's got what it takes right now, doesn't he seem off to you?" Jake swallowed, looking off to the side.

_Oh man, I thought he would have told her by now, it's been a few days! If he hasn't then he must have his reasons, I should trust that he knows what he's doing..._

"Oh, yeah he broke up with Flame Princess a few days ago and he's getting over it."

_Dang it Jake! What did I just tell me?_

Bubblegum gave a surprised little gasp and her hand shot to her mouth. Jake also didn't miss the small glint of hurt behind her eyes.

"Oh my Gob, I had no idea. He'd seemed down when we had tea yesterday but he just said he was tired! I'd gotten so used to seeing him with burns that I just assumed he'd been experimenting with, you know, the 'tiers'." Jake shook his head and she nodded somberly. "Maybe we should bring this stuff back to the tent, I doubt Finn wants to spend a few hours alone in the desert."

"Ok Bubblegum, and hey-" Jake turned to stare her directly in the face, placing his hands on her shoulders, "you promise me you won't tell Finn I told you alright? He's got a lot on his mind, he'll talk about it when he's ready to." Bubblegum nodded slowly, putting her own hand on Jake's shoulder.

"I promise Jake, let's go figure this portal out so we can all go back home."

Jake seemed contented somewhat at this. He returned her nod and smiled a little sadly, bummed that any of this situation was actually happening. The pair started to gather up the assorted books and pages, but Bubblegum couldn't shake the small knot of sadness she suddenly felt. She felt bad for Finn of course, but she was also upset that he hadn't told her that something so important had happened to him.

_He just saw me yesterday, I thought he would have mentioned it. Maybe he doesn't trust me anymore... We really haven't spent much time together lately outside of me giving him stuff to do. I should invite him over more often._


	6. Face to Face

**A/N:** So I actually rewrote this twice, as their dialogue felt really forced the first two times. I'm trying to write Fionna as more like Finn, I felt like the romanticism stuff was pushed in her episodes because it was fanfiction anyways, and not what she'd actually be like (Which in retrospect is ironic as hell...) I always dig reviews, tell me what's working/not working!

* * *

The two adventurers stood staring at each other in total silence for almost a full minute without moving.

Finn thought he had a(nother) crush.

Fionna wouldn't even have told Cake, but she thought she did too.

Finn looked Fionna up and down, taking in her similar colour coordination, her adorable golden lock, the calm grasp she had on her sword, her curves. Finn didn't even know he _liked_ curves until he saw hers so prominently on display, but at that moment some part of his mind realized that they were a good thing.

Fionna eyed Finn similarly, taking in his ready stance, honest looking eyes, and his noticeable burns on his face and arms. He looked genuine, if somewhat battle-damaged at the moment. At least if he was going to fight her he looked like he could handle himself. Fionna didn't think it would come to that though, as the boy gave her an awkward smile. She couldn't help but return it.

Finn tried to get a hold of his excitement, as it suddenly occurred to him that he was grinning like an idiot at her. He took a breath to compose himself carefully pushed the tip of his sword into the sand at his side. He raised his arm and gave her a small wave.

"Uhh, hi there. I'm Finn."

Fionna giggled a bit at his awkwardness, if only because it made her feel better about her own. She similarly deposited her sword in the sand and waved back.

"I know man, you wrote it on the letter remember?" Finn winced, feeling stupid and nervous again. A memory of his first meeting with Flame Princess flared up unbidden, of his inability to say what he;d wanted to. It adding a bittersweet tinge to his current feelings, but he shook his head to try and clear it. It was time to be a man, not a boy. He caught her eye again, and saw her look somewhat apologetic for calling him out on his mistake. "I'm Fionna though. Nice to actually meet you Finn."

Finn watched her smile at him with a bashful look on her face and felt his heart wobble in his chest. He decided to try and act a little more grown up.. Channeling Bubblegum during all the times he'd seen her being diplomatic he straightened his posture and approached Fionna, slowing a bit as he got closer so he wouldn't spook her. He tried his best to calm the shaking in his arm as he extended it towards her. He couldn't stop a more genuine smile from spreading on his face when Fionna also stuck out her hand and took his.

"It's nice to meet you too Fionna."

They shook, both somewhat surprised at the strong grip the other possessed, and both felt a little more at ease with the situation they were being faced with. After separating, Fionna took a moment to look around at the pavilion she was standing beneath. It was virtually identical to the one she had just left. She looked at Finn plainly and circled her finger around, gesturing to the tent.

"So did your Candy Princess put this together?"

"Well, technically her banana guards did. But if it's pink you can bet Bubblegum had a hand in it somewhere." The girl nodded at his comment.

"Sounds familiar, Gumball's the same way."

"So is he the ruler of your Candy Kingdom then? Do you have a Princess there?"

"No princesses, just Gumball." Fionna said, shaking her head. "He and the other princes rule all the various kingdoms in Ooo."

"Weird, my Ooo is all princesses. I don't think we have **any** princes here that actually rule anything..." Finn replied, curious at the notion of a land of princes instead of princesses. Fionna seemed genuinely surprised to hear his world was the other way around.

"Seriously? Cause there are like, zero princesses in my Ooo. Zip, nadda. It's all dudes. Well, and Ice Queen, if she counts."

"We have an Ice King, but I don't think he counts." Finn screwed up his face slightly, "Outside of his penguins he doesn't really rule anything."

Fionna and Finn both were starting to notice the pattern developing, and spent the next few minutes verifying that everybody who was female in Finn's Ooo was male in Fionna's and vice-versa. They eventually came to the subject of their pets, and were surprised to hear that Jake and Cake's species were different and not just their genders.

"Yeah, Jake's my brother and my best friend. He goes on my adventures with me. He's a magical dog that can change shape and size to pretty much anything. It's all kinds of useful." Fionna smiled and nodded, knowing just how useful it was.

"The cat you saw was Cake, and she's my soul-sister. She's magic too, and you're right its super helpful. Umm, sorry if this seems rude but did Jake's dog parents raise you by any chance?" Finn's face betrayed his surprise at her knowing that before his brain caught on to where she was going.

"Yeah they did, they found me in a forest as a baby. Did Cake's cat parents raise you too?" Fionna just nodded. The pair of them mulled over that for a moment. Finn thought it was weird enough that they looked a lot alike, but now he was wondering if they weren't kinda the same person. He felt his brain wrinkle while he tried to think about it. Fionna also seemed troubled, but another thought jumped out at her and she took the opportunity to get back to talking.

"Hey Finn, this may seem like a weirdly obvious question given what we know, but is your BMO a boy or a girl?" Finn laughed at her question, as he was sure he wasn't about to be any help to her at all.

"I have no idea whatsoever. BMO's just... BMO." The pair shared a laugh at the statement, resigning themselves to never knowing.

Finn was enjoying the sense of discovery he was feeling, an excitement in his very soul at the thought of there being another entire Ooo to go adventuring in. Not to mention the excitement he was getting out of becoming more comfortable with this pretty newcomer. He felt a collection of familiar and new emotions inside of him when he looked at her. He saw a similar kind of passion he'd seen in Flame Princess, but this passion was for exploration and discovery, not destruction. He saw the same care in her eyes that he saw in Bubblegum (at least as far as her citizens were concerned), and the desire to help that he knew he shared. Most of all he immediately saw her as an equal, from her build to her blade he saw an adventuress, not a damsel. Maybe even an adventuring partner? Finn mentally chastised himself, deciding to make the friend first and deal with later, well, later. He hoped he was making as good of an impression of Fionna as she was on him.

Fionna was feeling quite charmed with Finn thus far

Finn was almost annoyed when Jake and Bubblegum got back, if only because he knew he'd lose his chance at more time alone with Fionna for a long while.

"Finn! We're back buddy!" Jake called as his giant feet pounded into the sand outside of the tent.

FIonna shot Finn a concerned look and raised eyebrow, which clearly asked: _"Should I go back?" _Finn shook his head, figuring she was already here and pretty clearly not any danger so it should be fine. Bubblegum and Jake walked in, sharing the load of a bag full of books between them. They both stopped short and gasped, dropping the bag, when they saw Fionna standing next to Finn. Bubblegum stormed up to Finn with an angry look on her face.

"Finn, what is she doing here? Didn't I say the portal could still be dangerous? Why did you let her in?" Finn looked taken aback by how mad the princess seemed, and raised his hands defensively in front of himself. He noticed Fionna doing the same, though she remained quiet.

"Whoa Princess, calm down! Fionna's cool, she's a hero like me. No need to get yourself worked up ok?" Bubblegum still looked annoyed, but backed down a bit when Finn mentioned she was a hero. Finn hazarded a glance at Fionna and gave her a reassuring smile and a thumb up. The girl put her arms back down at her sides and nervously smiled back. Jake stretched his arm out to tap Finn on the shoulder, then pointed behind him.

"I hope she brought a sleeping bag then, cause I don't think she's going home for a while."

"WHAT?" The other three shouted in unison, whirling around to see the portal folding in on itself. The clouds outside the tent started swirling around the site and lightning started cracking, hitting the ground outside. An errant bolt struck the top of the tent and the fabric burst into flames. Jake inflated himself to cover everyone from the falling debris, but Fionna rolled out from under him.

"I'm sorry Finn, I can't stay here!" She yelled as she ran across the open space to the portal. The blue doorway was imploding and the passage through was now only the size of a beach ball. Fionna dove forwards, reaching the edge of the portal with her fingertips. Just as she touched it however, the portal collapsed in full, and Fionna flew through the space it had just been in and landed in a heap in the sand. Finn dashed after her, seeing some of the supports holding the large tent up above her beginning to give. He slid in to where she had fallen, scooped her up, and hauled her to the side in time to avoid the flaming wood as it crashed down where Fionna had just been. Finn looked down at Fionna and waved a hand in front of her eyes.

"Too late, let's get out of here!"

Fionna barely registered his words, but dumbly nodded as he dragged her to her feet. The two ran towards the exit, where Jake and Bubblegum were frantically waving them on. The four left the pavilion just as it fell apart in full, fire and splinters littering the desert around them. A smaller tent erected close by was rustling heavily, and a quartet of banana guards burst out in response to the commotion. As they quickly went about dousing the flames, Bubblegum and Jake checked over the books they'd brought to make sure they were unharmed. Finn let go of Fionna as she collapsed in the sand once more, a lost look in her eyes. He opened his mouth to speak, but chose instead to just sit beside her in silence. All he did was reach a hand out and place it on her shoulder.

Fionna was having trouble waking up from her dream. Usually, when the big despair moment occurred, it was time to wake up. But she couldn't. She distantly noted Finn's presence beside her, but she couldn't focus on anything but the visual of the portal closing, with her on the wrong side. She started taking deep breaths, forcing herself to remain calm and not despair. This was new, it was adventure, it was her element, she didn't have to be scared. She'd just brush herself off and find the way home. Even though this kind of portal had never been seen before, and Gumball knew nothing about it, and nobody from this Ooo seemed to either.

_Oh grod, oh grod, oh grod._

Finn noticed her body shaking under his hand, so he rubbed her shoulder and tried to think of something to say. He imagined he was having the same thoughts as her, that Glob only knew when another portal might open, or even if it would go back to her world. He couldn't help but feel like it was his fault, if he hadn't poked around at the portal like Bubblegum had warned against she probably wouldn't have come through. He turned to Fionna, shaking her slightly to get her to look at him. When she did he saw her fighting hard to keep her composure. He admired that.

"Fionna, I swear to you here and now that everyone here will try our very best to get you back home. I promise, we'll find a way." He kept his voice as even as he could, and he was almost surprised at his own conviction. His desire, his _need_, to help Fionna felt like a mountain compared to the molehill that was his existing desire to help others. He'd met a girl, a human no less, who was so much like him, and had managed in ten minutes to ruin her entire life. He refused to let that stand. Feeling Fionna calm slightly under his hand at his words, he nodded to her and managed a weak smile. A ghost of a smile appeared on her own face, and Finn decided it was the best he could hope for given the circumstances. He rose, turning to Jake and Bubblegum with a serious look on his face.

"Hey PB! Tell me you found something useful."


	7. Keeping Hopes High

Fionna watched Finn interact with his friends, but from the look on his face it didn't seem promising for her. She was glad that she at least had a friend in this Ooo already, it made the prospect of being stuck here for Grod knew how long a little more bearable. Still, it was a daunting concept. She'd gotten used to doing more adventures on her own, Cake's kittens may have been part Rainicorn, but the cat DNA seemed to be the more dominant and they weren't growing up nearly as fast as their parents had expected. With Cake at home raising her kids, Fionna had become accustomed to questing solo, which had come with its own share of issues. She was fortunate enough that Lord Monochromium and Marshall Lee had both offered to help her out from time to time, and frankly that was the reason she was still alive after a few of her run ins. She sighed, hugging her knees into her chest. Thinking about her friends was only making her feel worse, but she fought hard to keep the nagging bit of pessimism in her mind from telling her she was stuck here forever. There _had_ to be a way back, she just had to find it.

_And at least I'll have Finn to help me._

Finn was trying to make a plan of action with Jake and Bubblegum, but kept getting distracted every time he caught sight of Fionna out of the corner of his eye. He still couldn't shake the feeling of guilt that had nestled in him, and his young mind was assailing him with a hundred and one ways they could try to open another portal for her. The Princess seemed less optimistic about it.

"Of course I want to help her Finn, but we can't be reckless about it! Let me look through these," she gestured to the mountain of books in her bag, "and then we can take a crack at this, armed with knowledge." Finn was less than impressed at her suggestion, but a pleading look from Jake made him keep his mouth shut about it. The dog pulled a few of the books from the bag.

"Let us help too Princess, we can take a couple of these and read through them, right Finn?" he asked hopefully, trying to keep his best friend optimistic. Finn nodded and made a fist.

"Yeah man! I will read those books _so hard_ they won't know where to drop their knowledge guts!"

"That's the spirit buddy!" Jake enthusiastically replied, "Peebes! Find us a few of those books that we can read at home."

Bubblegum nodded, rummaging through the bag until she found a handful of works detailing legends of other worlds and gave them to Jake, who morphed his arms into a bag to carry them. Finn meanwhile, went back over to Fionna to tell her what their plan was. He sat beside her again, his heart skipping a quick beat when she turned to face him this time.

"Alright Fionna, we've got a whole bunch of books about other worlds and portals here, and we're going to shake 'em down until we find you a way back home ok?" Finn gave her a smile and thumb up, feeling confident that the answer was going to be in one of those books. She smiled back, glad that there was at least something she could do right away.

"Ok Finn, I'll help too. I don't want you to go to all this trouble just for me. Thanks though, I really appreciate it."

"No problem, I'm sure you'd do the same for me." Finn beamed at her, "That's why we're heroes." Fionna couldn't help but smile back, his enthusiasm was infectious. The two bounded to their feet and met up with Jake and Bubblegum, the latter giving her banana guard instructions for tearing down the camp. Finn and Jake bumped fists, and Fionna stuck her hand out to Jake to shake it.

"Hi Jake, Finn told me about you. I know we sort of met before, but officially, I'm Fionna." Without removing his fist from Finn's, or dropping the books in his other hand-bag, Jake stretched one of his jowls into a hand and shook hers, causing her to giggle. She'd seen Cake do similar things with whiskers and her tail, and it never stopped amusing her. Bubblegum wrapped up with her guards and rejoined the trio, looking at Fionna with a slightly questioning glance.

"So Fionna, I can take you back to the candy Kingdom and find you a place to stay while we figure this out if you'd like," she asked politely. Fionna looked to the side, thinking about her options. She certainly didn't want to just wander alone, but she also wasn't sure if she was willing to walk through a kingdom of people she 'knew', but didn't really know at all. Secretly she wanted to go with Finn and Jake back to their place, if only to see how different it looked compared to hers. She also found herself strangely drawn to the boy hero who was so much like her. She opened her mouth to speak but was beaten to the punch by Finn.

"Or if you want you could stay with Jake and me in the tree fort?" he asked with hesitation. Fionna staying in the Candy Kingdom was probably the best idea to Finn, she'd be right there if Bubblegum found something out and she'd probably eat and sleep better with actual quarters. But he couldn't bring himself to just let her go with the princess; he wasn't ready to see her leave yet. He felt the same feeling in his gut that he had when he'd first met Flame Princess, and he'd missed that feeling so much in the past few days. He silently admonished himself for being selfish, but he knew if he hadn't offered then he would have regretted it.

He felt vindicated as he saw Fionna's face light up at this suggestion.

"If it's ok with you and Jake, I'd love to! Uhh, if it's not too much trouble that is." She shyly shrugged her shoulders and looked down, a little embarrassed at how excited she just got at his offer. She wouldn't have said it out loud, but a part of her was looking forward to spending some time here. She just wished she could do so while also letting her friends back home know she was ok.

Jake blew himself up to bring the pair of adventurers home but they were stopped as they were about to climb on his hand. A banana guardsman stood behind the two of them and politely offered them their swords, both having been left under the rubble during their escape. As they recovered their blades, they both took a moment to notice the similarities between them. Fionna assumed that Finn had also gotten his from his mother's, wait, no it would have been his father's, dungeon. They were made in similar fashions, but Fionna's sword hilt was a little more eloquently designed, with thorns protruding outwards from the top of the hilt. Finn's blade was longer and thicker, and his sword was a deeper shade of red.

"You know it's weird," Finn stated, "seeing what's similar and how much is different. Maybe once we get you home I'll be able to come visit your Ooo."

Fionna looked up at the sky, a little giggle bubbling out of her. "I'd like that Finn."

They stepped on Jake's hand and were lifted on to his back, where they got comfortable as Jake loped off into the distance. Bubblegum watched them go, feeling slightly ignored but choosing not to concern herself with it. She helped her guards finish packing up and started making the hike home. She idly flipped through the pages of one of her books as they went, wondering what she might find that could help. She also wished she'd thought to bring Morrow with her, so she would have had a faster way home.

* * *

Jake took his time as he crossed over the hills and fields that led to the Tree Fort. He could hear Finn and Fionna making idle conversation behind his head but opted to remain out of it. He'd seen Finn act this excited before, when he'd met Flame Princess, and as much as he wanted to tell his buddy not to get too attached to a girl who didn't even live in their Ooo, he couldn't help but be happy to see the spring fully back in Finn's step.

Finn was busy showing Fionna a map that he had in his pack, as he wanted to test a theory he'd had about their adventures. This particular map was of Ooo, and was covered in markings Finn had added over the past few years that indicated where all the dungeons he and Jake had found and cleared out were located. Fionna looked it over, and upon recognizing its purpose, pulled her own out of her bag and opened it alongside. They were both quick to note that while they had individually found many of the same dungeons, there were a fair number that were marked on one map but not the other.

"Cool," Finn exclaimed, "we do have different adventures from one another." This simple fact helped remove some of the uneasiness that had been growing in Finn the more he and Fionna had talked about their lives. He was getting the feeling they were living in tandem, as their lives seemed eerily similar, and something in his head didn't want to consider that they were somehow the same person.

The thought had crossed Fionna's mind as well, but she wasn't in a state where she was willing to engage with it. She was grateful to Finn for providing her with a distraction as Jake took them back, and the difference in maps was actually an interesting find. If their Ooos were different from one another in more ways beyond the gender flip, it could improve her chances of someone in one Ooo or the other finding her a way home. It gave her a bit more hope that things would end well, and she chose to embrace that hope and try to keep from despairing. She leaned back on her hands, taking a deep breath and looking at the serene noon sky. Finn mimicked her, also letting himself unwind a little bit. It had been a stressful morning for the pair of them, and they were both already starting to feel worn out from the emotional roller coaster they'd both ridden over the past few hours.

Deciding to cease worrying about getting home for the moment Fionna took a sidelong glance at Finn, the boy who she had to thank for giving her hope for the future. If nothing else, she'd have some time to get to know him, and as far as silver linings went, Fionna decided that it was a pretty good one.

"Hey Finn?" Fionna asked.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks again for your help. I don't know what I'd have done if I'd been in that desert without you."

Finn's face darkened at her words, and he looked away. "You probably wouldn't have come through and gotten stuck here without me."

She felt a rush of guilt as his meaning dawned on her, and she refused to let him feel bad at all for what had happened. She reached over and grasped his shoulder, turning him to face her.

"Hey, no. None of that. I came through on my own and got stuck on my own alright? And I'll get home some way or another. This isn't your fault Finn, heck you kept me from getting squished and you're giving me a place to stay. So no feeling bad buster!"

Finn cracked a smile, partially because her words made him feel better and partially because her formidable face was totally adorable. He nodded to her, "Ok then. And no feeling bad for you either, cause we're going to get you home."

"Deal."

That resolved, the pair laid back again, enjoying the breeze and sun. Jake heard their talking stop and stretched his head around to look at his back, seeing Finn and Fionna sprawled out and both nearly asleep. He sunk a divot in his back between them that they both slid into, laying next to one another as they both dozed off for a nap.


	8. An Awkward Morning

**A/N:** Trying to keep the pacing credible here, sorry if it feels it's dragging on though. Glad people seem interested thus far :)

* * *

Finn opened his eyes to an ocean of stars stretching out above him. A gorgeous, cloudless night blanketed the sky and Finn took a deep breath and relished the quiet. He closed his eyes again and felt the cool grass under him, the gentle breeze blowing over the hills, and the distant sounds of life coming from the forest. The breeze picked up, and Finn felt the beginnings of a shiver work their way down his spine. He turned closer to the heat source beside him and let it warm him. Upon hearing a familiar giggle, he cracked an eye open and found himself staring into the face of Flame Princess.

"Comfortable Finn? It's such a nice night, thanks for taking me out!" She smiled at him warmly, her flames ever so slightly increasing in intensity.

Finn blinked a few times and then leapt to his feet. He looked at the field around him and saw nothing but grass and hills for miles.

_Wait, this isn't right, where's Jake? And Fionna?_

He felt a knot of panic in his gut as he looked back at Flame Princess, who looked concerned.

"What's wrong Finn? You look like you saw a ghost." She looked down at his feet, where Finn saw a beetle crawling past him. She pointed a flaming finger at it, "Oh, is that bothering you? I can take care of it!"

Before Finn could speak Flame Princess' head burst into roaring flames, and she laughed maniacally as a jet of flame surged from her hand to scorch both the beetle and the earth under Finn's feet. He leapt away, crying out in surprise and fear as the flame tongues stopped just short of his face. He rolled to his feet, waving his hands around his head.

"Are you crazy? What are you doing? That beetle didn't do anything! And you almost burned me!" He cried out at her. She turned her fiery gaze on him, her flaming face turning to a frown.

"Oh Finn, I'm not being too evil am I?" She asked with a sneer, pointing her flaming finger at him next. Finn frantically looked for cover but found none, nor did he have his sword in his pack. He looked on fearfully as Flame Princess' hand opened and several streams of fire wrapped around, forming a fireball in her hand. As she pressed her palm outwards the ball of flames shot directly at Finn who could do nothing but cover his face with his arms and scream.

* * *

Finn's eyes burst open as he raggedly drew in gasps of breath. His eyes shot around his location and he saw he was in his own room, lying on his bed. He brought a hand to his face to check for burns, but there were no fresh injuries. He calmed slightly then, letting reality sink back in as his adrenaline surge quickly wore off. He tried to raise his other arm but found he couldn't, and looked down to see Fionna curled into his side on top of his arm. Between her rogue lock of gold hair and her bunny ears she looked adorable bunched up next to him. A little electric thrill shot through him, as he realized never been in such close contact with anyone but his family, and certainly never a human. She was still asleep, but Finn noticed her brow furrowed and her fists clenched. He idly wondered if she was having a weird dream too. Maybe she'd had her own Flame Prince she was dreaming about.  
Maybe she still did...  
Finn stopped that train of thought as best he could, locking it away in his head. Instead he just relaxed, letting his eyes fall closed. Finn relished the feeling of being so close to a pretty girl without sustaining any burns or risking having his clothes burst into flame. It was nice, peaceful, Finn was pretty sure he could get used to it.

Fionna's eyes opened and she sat up with a start, feeling sweat under her bunny hood and her heart pounding in her chest after her own nightmare had ended. She choked down the panic that had suddenly gripped her and looked around. Her room... sort of? She didn't remember leaving it in such a mess, nor did she see Cake's bed anywhere. She closed her eyes for a moment and the memory of the past few hours came back to her. She rubbed her face and pulled her hood off, letting her hair spill out as she stretched her arms out behind her. She froze in place when she felt her left hand smack into something.

"Ouch!" exclaimed a boyish voice.

Fionna whirled her head around in surprise to see Finn sitting on the bed, her fist pushed into his face and a look of pain and surprise in his eyes. Fionna shouted in surprise and tried to rise, her legs bumping into his and throwing her balance off. She let out a strangled gargle of surprise as she fell off the bed, landing hard on her backside on the floor.

"Oww!" she complained, rubbing her posterior. Finn cautiously stuck his head over the edge of the bed to see her in a heap. He choked down a laugh.

"Uhh, morning? Are you ok?" he asked.

"Hi... yeah I'm fine..." she replied, looking away to hide the furious blush that had invaded her cheeks.

_Nice job Fionna, why don't you just hang a sign that says 'loser' on yourself?_

She rose sheepishly, trying to disentangle her limbs from her long hair. Finn rose as well, conveniently moving towards his window so she had time to try and compose herself. He stuck his head out and found the sun, well overhead but past noon.

"Alright, maybe not morning. I think we just fell asleep when Jake was bringing us back here."

Fionna gave a murmur in reply she bunched up her hair and yanked her hood back down over it. She felt the familiar pressure underneath the cap until a lock of her hair burst out the front, resting over the side of her face. She stretched again, this time making sure there was ample room between her and Finn's face, and stifled a yawn. Finn had moved to the stairs and begun heading down, looking for Jake or BMO.

"I'll be right back, I'm going to find Jake."

He was unsurprised to see Jake lying in a pile of dishes that he assumed had recently contained food. Hearing the noise from the ladder, Jake turned his head to see Finn and the dog rolled to his feet and walked over.

"Hey Finn, wasn't sure if I should wake you two or not. I figured I'd give you an hour." he explained. Finn nodded gratefully with a smile.

"Oh, thanks Jake. Guess we haven't been back that long then."

The dog shook his head, jowls flopping from side to side. "Nope, just long enough for me to tell BMO what happened and make lunch." Jake jerked his thumb over his shoulder to where BMO sat on their couch, who had just turned to notice Finn.

"Oh Finn! You're awake!" BMO exclaimed, hopping off the couch and walking over to him, "it's been so boring here this morning, but Jake says I can help with what you're doing!"

Finn nodded pensively, "Actually you can, but it's just reading books with us. Do you still want to?"

"Yes I do, I love helping you two with your adventures!" BMO hopped in place and clapped its hands.

"Did you want to eat something Finn?" asked Jake, "I haven't put everything away yet."

"No thanks, I'm good. I'll go ask Fionna though."

Fionna was once again sitting on Finn's bed, now eyeing the room around her and marvelling at just how similar their worlds really were. The construction of the Fort was nearly identical, minus a few aesthetic differences. Their furniture was in the same place, though it didn't appear that Jake had insisted on a bed the same way Cake had. Even the colour of their pyjamas and extra clothes were the same. It was a little weird, but at the same time made her feel more comfortable with her surroundings. She heard Finn and Jake talking below her, and a robotic voice that sounded exactly like her own BMO back home. When Finn poked his head into the room, she turned to him with a smile.

"Hey Fionna, would you like something to eat?" he asked politely.

"No thanks," she replied with a shake of her head, "I'm fine. Mind if I come downstairs though?"

Finn gave her a quizzical look, "Of course not, feel free!"

His head disappeared again as he went back down, leaving her alone in the room again. She rose, the smile on her face remaining despite being alone. She had to admit, Finn's enthusiasm was infectious. She was already growing quite fond of him, if for no other reason than because she had finally met a guy who similar to her. Not just by being a human, but by being upbeat, honest, and even by being awkward with her. She had yet to meet a boy she liked who hadn't made her feel small or young in some way, until now. She straightened her skirt a bit and made sure her bunny ears were still straight, and climbed down the ladder, eager to find out what they were doing with the rest of the day.

_Being stuck here might not be ideal, but it certainly could be a lot worse..._


	9. Research is Boring

**A/N:** Going to see how long I can keep up with posting one chapter a day. I only have a rough idea of where I'm going with this, but I've been enjoying it so it will probably last a while.

* * *

Two hours of reading through boring old books later and everybody was wishing they had something else to do. Finn was trying to stay interested by switching between two books whenever one got boring, but was only succeeding in confusing himself about the contents of both. Jake was lying face down in his book, muttering the same sentence over and over again. Even Fionna, who had attacked her book at first to find a way home, had lost enthusiasm for it, and was idly flipping pages looking for the word 'portal.' The only one who seemed to be enjoying themselves was BMO, who was quietly humming as it scanned through pages for anything useful. Fionna looked over the top of her book to Finn, who was scratching his chin and looking between both books, having lost his place in both of them. She couldn't help but chuckle, but kept her face behind her book so he wouldn't see. He was trying so hard for her, but she could tell that research was as much his thing as it was hers, which was to say not at all. She decided to put him out of his misery and slapped her book shut loudly enough to get everyone's attention.

"Alright, we put some good time in but this isn't making any sense to me at all," she started, "anybody find anything?"

Finn shook his head, "Not yet, but we will, I promise!" Fionna beamed at him.

"I know we will, but maybe we should leave the books to... it was Bubblegum right?"

"Yeah, PB's a lot better at reading and learning than we are." Jake said, rousing from his stupor and joining the conversation. Finn frowned slightly.

"Well sure, but what are we going to do in the meantime? It could be a long time before she finds anything Fionna, you know that right?"

Fionna nodded and chewed her lip slightly, thinking. Part of her wanted to explore this Ooo, but she knew that seeing the weird gender-flipped populace might not be something she could handle at the moment.

"Well, it's not that dark yet, want to find a dungeon or something? Adventuring helps me keep my mind off of things."

Finn's tiredness seemed to evaporate at the thought, and he bounced to his feet.

"Hey, that's a good idea Fionna! How about it Jake? You want to come?"

Jake looked between Finn and Fionna and weighed his options. He usually preferred to be with Finn when he went adventuring, but he also thought that the pair could both benefit from some alone time. He looked regrettably at the books in front of him and thought of a middle ground.

"You guys go ahead, if she's half the adventurer you are then the two of you will be fine. I'm going to take BMO and these books to Bubblegum's castle and see if she's found anything. I'll meet up with you guys later."

"Oh, ok pal," Finn replied, "if we find an awesome dungeon I promise I'll save it for you."

"Thanks Finn, you're the man." Jake shot him some finger pistols and started gathering books. BMO rose and hopped on Jake's head, waving to the pair.

"Bye Finn, bye Fionna. We will find you a way home. Don't let Finn die!" the robot yelled happily, continuing to wave as Jake left the house and stretched himself into a giant.

His thundering footsteps retreated into the distance, leaving Finn and Fionna alone again. Finn headed upstairs to grab their packs and swords, which Jake had deposited beside his bed. He was surprised that Fionna's pack felt a decent bit heavier than his, but he just assumed she had brought more stuff with her. As they strapped on their packs, a thought occurred to Fionna.

"Hey Finn, did you want to do a dungeon I've already done before?" she asked while pulling out her map, "It'll be easier to find that way."

Finn thought about it but shook his head, pulling his map out as well and holding it next to hers.

"Nah, let's look for a new one. I bet if we find the same gaps in between markers on both our maps, there's bound to be a dungeon there that neither of us has found yet!"

"Good thinking," she replied, "see any likely spots?"

The pair looked over the maps for a minute, when Fionna noticed something about Finn's markers that she couldn't quite figure out.

"So the white dot means you were there, and the yellow dot means Jake was there, but what's that red dot mean?"

Finn looked where her finger was pointing and saw the dot she was referencing. He remembered his first attempt to teach Flame Princess how to be destructive AND good, and how that lesson had ultimately done nothing but show her how much she liked to be destructive. He sighed at the memory.

"Oh, that. I did that dungeon with Flame Princess before we broke up." he tried to reply nonchalantly.

"Flame who?" she responded, "I didn't know there was a Flame Princess. Or I guess for me a Flame Prince."

Finn took a moment to digest her statement as a few thoughts assailed his mind. Firstly, she didn't know the Flame Prince, meaning that they'd never dated, meaning they certainly weren't dating now. Secondly, if he'd dated Flame Princess but Fionna hadn't met her Ooo's Flame Prince, then their adventures had been far more different than Finn had originally thought. Lastly, if she hadn't even met Flame Prince, did she have a hangup with Gumball like he had with Bubblegum? Had things worked out for Fionna where they'd failed Finn? Or had she just handled it better? Finn mulled over the possibilities for a few moments before he realized that Fionna was still looking at him expectantly.

"Oh, uhh, yeah. The Fire Kingdom has a Princess my age that Jake introduced me to a while back. She's a fire elemental."

Fionna listened to his words but was busy putting some things together in her own head. He'd met, and apparently had a relationship with, somebody that Fionna had never met, meaning that their worlds were a fair bit more different than she'd thought. But why had Finn looked for a girlfriend? Was his relationship with Bubblegum different than her relationship with Gumball? She had to admit to herself that she'd been close to the breaking point with Gumball playing hot and cold with her. She thought of her last big freakout over it and how she'd nearly chopped down her own tree house in a rage. Evidentially Finn had decided to move on, if he'd even had similar feelings with Bubblegum. Fionna took a second look at Finn's face, suddenly seeing some context for his burns, there was a good chance they were there because he and Flame Princess had broken up recently.

"I see, mind my asking why it didn't work out with you two?" Fionna cautiously asked, hoping Finn was as open about it as he'd seemed.

"Simple answer: she was evil." Finn replied somewhat curtly. He'd been feeling alright today, but he still didn't really feel like discussing it with anyone other than Jake. He hadn't even told Bubblegum it had happened yet. While Finn felt like he could trust Fionna, it wasn't a subject he was really in a mood to delve into. Fortunately, Fionna seemed to take the hint, and returned her gaze to the maps. She lit up a moment later, pointing at the same noticeable gap just inside the Ice Kingdom on both maps.

"Hey, why don't we look there? Seems promising. And dude," she pointed at a dot on her map very close to the Tree Fort, "come on, shaaaaame. There's one literally right outside, how have you not found it yet?"

Finn felt a surge of defensiveness, but then just laughed. "I dunno, least Jake and I will have something to do next time we're bored."

* * *

The duo set off, covering the rolling hills of the Grasslands quickly while they still had light to search by. This was one of the few instances that Finn was glad that the Ice Kingdom wasn't that far north, as usually the only result was that the Ice King didn't have to come far to bother him and Jake. They reached the snowy border leading to the Ice Kingdom with the sun waning on the horizon, and set about trying to find where a dungeon could be hiding. They travelled to a nearby collection of dead trees and rocks, tapping and knocking wherever they could, but to no avail. They combed through snow drifts, wandered across iced over pools of water, and shook every brush they could find. Half an hour in, they were beginning to wonder if they'd been wrong after all, when a noise all too familiar to Finn reached his ears.

"Oh hello bestest friend in the whole wide world!" crowed the Ice King as he flapped down from above, "What are you doing in my Kingdom so late at night?" He gasped, hands dramatically flying to his mouth, "Did you want to have a sleepover? Oh well it's pretty late notice but how could I say no?"

The Ice King touched down next to Finn, giving him a creepily wide smile. Fionna had elected to hide herself behind a brush, wanting to size up the Ice King before having to talk to him. Similar to her Ice Queen he was clearly insane, but instead of having developed an intense rivalry with Finn he seemed to think they were friends. It took her a single look at Finn's face to see that the King was merely being tolerated, but he seemed harmless enough. She emerged from the brush and gave a dainty shake of her hips, getting some loose snow off of her skirt. She walked out and stood with an unsure smile as Finn held a hand out towards her.

"Ice King, this is my new fri-"

"FIONNA?" the Ice King yelled, cutting Finn off and startling both young adventurers. The Ice King rubbed his eyes, pinched himself, and then slapped himself in the face in rapid succession. Upon seeing her still standing there he fell on his knees in front of her weeping.

"I knew it! I knew you were real! I just had to wait long enough for you to find me and you did! You did!"

Fionna was feeling extraordinarily confused and gave Finn a look to convey it. He shrugged helplessly and spun his finger around his temple, indicating that the Ice King was nuts. The King has started shuffling forwards on the ground, reaching out to grab Fionna's legs. She leapt in the air with a quick battle cry and kicked him in the head, knocking off his crown and flipping him over. He grunted in pain but was undeterred.

"Oh don't be like that Fionna, I know you're a tough girl, but you don't have to keep the act up with me! You can be the loving wife I've wanted ever since I wrote that story about us!"

Fionna was severely creeped out by this point, and Finn didn't look like he had any answers to provide her with. How had this guy known her name? He seemed weirdly obsessed with her despite having never met her before. She knew the Ice Crown made the wearer crazy, but this was a whole new level. She reflexively moved closer to Finn, wanting a friendly presence close to her to help make her heebie-jeebies go away. Finn took a protective step in between the two, keeping Fionna close behind him. Normally she'd hate to have a guy try and protect her but she was feeling genuinely unsettled by the Ice King and was grateful for the gesture. Finn and Fionna exchanged looks as the Ice King continued to babble about his disbelief that Fionna was real and they backed away, breaking into a dead sprint when the Ice King realized they'd left. Fionna led them back to a collection of trees and rocks that they hadn't searched yet and dove into a pile of snow behind one of the large stones. Finn followed suit, looking back and seeing that the Ice King was burrowing in the snow trying to find his crown. Once he did, he took to the sky, looking into the growing darkness to try and find the pair.

"Fionna! Fioooooonnaaaa! Don't let that Finn character hide you away! I'll rescue you!"

Finn shuddered at the Ice King's newest madness, watching him fly over them and continue into the distance. He sighed in relief and turned back to Fionna to see how she was. She looked visibly shaken, and Finn couldn't blame her, that was weird even by Ice King standards. He put a hand on her shoulder and tried to give her a reassuring look. She tackled him in a hug.

"Promise me if he gets me you'll bust me out like, right away. I want nothing to do with whatever his crazy mind just thought up."

Finn nodded, "Of course. He's normally harmless, that's the weirdest I've seen him in months, ever since Flame Princess kicked his butt." Fionna seemed unconvinced, but was calming down after the strange encounter. Finn looked in the shred of light they had left at the rock Fionna had hidden behind and smirked.

"Besides, looks like your adventuring instincts are still top notch."

He leaned past her and pushed the stone coloured button concealed on the rock face and the pair watched the rock open like a hatch. A gust of cold air whipped past them as it was sucked into the hole, which revealed a set of stairs leading down into a dimly lit area. Finn gave Fionna a thumb up and gestured her onwards.

"Ladies first."


	10. Dungeoneering 101

**A/N: So I forget that life still happens whether I want to write or not, so I'll try for every day but as the lateness of this update shows, I may not always succeed. Hope everyone's still enjoying/following, as this is a hell of a lot of fun to write. Write a review if you liked/didn't like it, I'm always looking to improve :)**

* * *

Fionna began making her way carefully down the stairs, keeping a hand against the cold stone to her side. Between the night outside and darkness inside she couldn't make out if the stairs beneath her were in good state or not, and proceeded on them gingerly. Finn followed right behind her, taking equal caution as he squinted into the dim light at the base of the stairwell. The stairs descended sharply, taking the pair deep into the ground as they picked their way down. As they approached the base, Fionna looked back up towards the entrance, seeing nothing but the distant twinkle of a few stars. The pair reached the base of the stairway and went side-by-side into the next chamber, both of their jaws dropping when they entered. The dim lighting was being provided by a vast network of coloured crystal protruding at all angles from the stony walls of the tunnel. Each crystal was softly pulsating with a dim light, creating a field of changing colours that washed over the room. The duo approached a cluster of gems nearby, momentarily transfixed by the shimmering ocean of light they were witnessing. Fionna leaned close, peering into the crystals to try and find the source of the light. She saw nothing but a distorted reflection of the stone it rested on; the light was some form of magical property. Finn meanwhile had run his hand down several, fascinated by the subtle thrum he felt in his fingers as they passed over the gems.

"Hey Fionna, touch one of them, they feel like they're alive."

Fionna tried herself, delighted at the feeling in her palm as she pressed it down on an emerald green crystal. As her hand ran down it, the crystal's light began to grow brighter, shining more strongly against those of its brothers nearby

"It feels like Cake's belly when she's purring," she remarked, "I wonder what makes them do that?"

"I have no idea, but it's **really cool.**" Finn replied emphatically. He wandered down the chamber's wall, tapping various crystals as he went. At his touch, each one shone a little brighter, and the pair noticed that a quiet hum had also begun to build in the room. Fionna looked around, both fascinated and suspicious with the sudden, building noise.

"Finn, maybe we shouldn't play around with these. Who knows what they do?" She looked at Finn with concern.

He stopped just short of tapping another, considering her words. He knew she was probably right, so he mustered up some willpower and resisted the urge to tap one more before leaving the area. He turned, giving Fionna an exaggerated slump of his shoulders.

"Oh fiiiiiine," he pretended to pout, before straightening up and heading further down the tunnel. Fionna dawdled a moment, looking at the twinkling lights a moment longer, before reaching her finger out and tapping the crystal she'd stopped Finn from touching. The brilliant azure gem light up and added its own small hum to the low drone. Fionna smiled.

_When we leave here, we're totally taking some of these with us._

She skipped a few feet down the tunnel, catching up with Finn and taking his side as they continued onwards. Behind her, the crystals on the walls started to pulse with light as the humming sound began reverberating around the tunnel walls. Slowly but surely more crystals lit up, and the humming sound began to grow in intensity. Finn and Fionna made their way down the tunnel oblivious to the creeping wall of growing light and sound slowly following their path.

The adventurers continued moving through the tunnel, both smiling at the gorgeous crystals lighting their path as they went. The tunnel they walked in contained many twists and turns, but they noticed that it was also slowly tapering down as they proceeded. Soon the amicable space between the pair shortened, as the walls forced them closer together if they wanted to walk beside one another. Neither of them commented on it, both feeling a little awkward when their arms began rubbing together as they continued on. Fionna noticed how unnaturally warm Finn's skin felt compared to the admittedly cold cavern they walked; in fact it occurred to her that it had actually been getting colder as they went further. Finn hadn't really noticed the temperature, as he was focusing very hard on finding something to talk to Fionna about. He was usually fine adventuring in silence with Jake, but he felt compelled to get Fionna talking again, if only to hear her laugh again.

"Uhm, hey Fionna?" he began, thinking of something to ask her, "Jake's got kids with his girlfriend, and you said Cake was with a rainicorn too, do they have kids?"

"Yeah, Cake's been taking care of them for close to a year now." she replied easily, "You should have seen her while she was pregnant. She couldn't do a whole lot, especially stretching her body, so I did a bunch of adventures solo."

"Wow," Finn said, impressed, "I can only think of a few things I've done without Jake, how'd you manage?"

"Using this." Fionna smirked and tapped her head, "I realized how used I'd gotten to just having Cake do the tricky stuff so I had to learn to get through dungeons the hard way. It wasn't easy though, to be honest I miss having her around for it." A thought occurred to her then, "Hey wait, why isn't Jake helping raise the kids? Lord Monochromicorn comes over all the time to help out. Their kids grow fast, I guess rainicorns are like that, but they're still just little tykes."

"Huh, I guess it must have to do with the gender thing. Jake's gf Lady was the one with the kids, and they grew **really** fast. They're practically older than he is now. Wonder if Lady being the mother had something to do with it."

The pair mulled over yet another weird difference in their worlds before they abruptly squished into each other. Their walking space had dwindled enough that they both couldn't fit in the tunnel walking beside one another without also scraping along the crystals. Finn took a half step back and bowed dramatically, raising his hands to signal her to pass him. She giggled and did so, walking another few feet until the snaking tunnel led straight out to an opening. She hurried herself along, feeling slightly constricted by how small the tunnel had gotten. She slipped through the smaller archway of dirt and stone and entered a more spacious chamber. Finn followed suit, but momentarily yelped in surprise as his larger frame caused his arm to get scratched by a crystal as he passed through the same passage. He eyed his arm, seeing a small nick but not much else. The crystal his arm had touched lit up, this one a soft lavender. He shrugged, joining Fionna as they gazed at the new area.

The chamber they had entered was a large maze-like catacomb, filled with rows and rows of skeletons holding a wealth of different tools and weapons. The space was sparsely lit by some sconces placed throughout, all lit with a sickly green fire. The pair stood on a raised platform, looking down over the tomb below, which expanded outwards for several hundred feet of twisting hallways. Finn looked around them and pointed out a winding stairway leading down into the maze, but Fionna stopped him from going over to them.

"Finn look," she said, pointing into the distance, "I think that's what they're keeping here."

At the back of the open chamber Finn could see a faint red glow of some object or other, which stood on a dais raised beneath a mammoth pile of bones. Neither of them could determine what the item was from their vantage point, but they both felt excitement at the possibilities. They took the stairway down, reaching the flattened base where a few of the same green torches rested on the wall. Both adventurers reached up and grabbed themselves one, proceeding onward bathed the eerie light they provided. The catacomb walls were far higher from their position on the ground than they had appeared from up high, easily reaching twenty feet. The sides of the catacomb walls were hollowed out, to make room for the legions of skeletons that were posed inside. Finn and Fionna approached them warily, looking at a collection of bony bodies that were dressed and equipped as farmers. They wore straw hats on their skulls, and had pitchforks, hoes, and shovels grasped in their ivory digits. Fionna drew her sword out of habit, holding it close to her side as Finn approached one of the bodies. He reached out a hand pushed its shoulder, jumping back with his fists up in case it came to life. He was slightly disappointed when the skeleton just shifted back from the push, leaning against the wall of the socket it was placed in. A quick examination and some thrown rocks later, the pair concluded that none of the skeletons around them were waiting in ambush, and they slowly made their way into the maze. They proceeded about ten feet before they were faced with a simple fork in the path.

"We should leave a marking or something so we know where we came from." Fionna suggested.

Finn nodded, and walked over to a skeleton placed nearby. This one had a leather helmet on, but the gear was comically oversized for its skull. Finn bopped it on the helm, the force sending the bones rattling to the ground as the skeleton collapsed. He then pulled out a few bones, which popped apart easily, and laid a simple bone arrow on the ground at the fork, pointing out towards the exit. He smiled at his handiwork and turned to Fionna.

"That work?"

"Yeah, good thinking Finn. Now we've just got to find out way through here."

The pair began a slow and methodical trip through the maze, facing more than a few dead ends along the way. Fionna remained on her guard the entire time, sword and torch in hand to smite any skeleton that turned out to be alive. She kept her eyes peeled for any sign of traps as well, as a feeling in her gut told her things were going entirely too well so far. Finn took a far more relaxed approach, taking time now and again to examine the newest outfits and equipment that the skeletons around them were toting. He was noticing a pattern as the skeletons went from more work and tool based to fighters, to proper soldiers with ranks and armour. He couldn't help but admire some of the ornate seeming weapons that some of them carried as well, but he had no interest in trading his family sword for any stuffy old substitute. Fionna couldn't help but watch him as he puttered about, poking and prodding at the skeletons, imitating their poses, and generally making a mess as he knocked one apart every intersection to mark where they'd come from. She felt a small twinge of regret as she thought about her own dungeoneering and how she'd been forced to take everything more seriously without Cake by her side all the time. She forced herself to take a deep breath and tried to relax a bit, sheathing her sword in her pack. She wasn't alone this time, she could afford to let herself have more fun without having to worry as much. Finn certainly didn't seem worried, as he struck a particularly macho pose beside a skeleton doing the same. He turned his head and caught her staring at him and suddenly felt very self conscious, rubbing his arm sheepishly and blushing. Fionna realized she'd been staring and also felt embarrassed, stammering to try and find something to say to cover it up. Finn's attention had been hooked elsewhere however, as he saw a red glow at the end of one of the long hallways at the intersection they were at.

"Hey Fionna look! That glow! It's the thing we're looking for!"

Fionna barely had time to look before she felt Finn grab her hand and they took off at an excited sprint to get to it. They reached the end of the hall and turned, both stopping dead in their tracks. The source of the glow was certainly in front of them, but the bonepile it rested upon was gargantuan.

"Well," Fionna breathed out, "that could be a problem."

Finn rubbed his chin pensively, examining the pile. It was at least a hundred feet up, lacked any stairs or obvious routes up, and looked both unsteady and hazardous. The chance to fall seemed immense, and especially without Jake there to either reach up or catch him, he didn't relish the thought of climbing it. He had a moment of appreciation for how hard Fionna must have had it, not having Cake there all the time anymore, if nothing else Finn saw just how convenient it was to have a magical dog as his best friend. He turned to see Fionna stroking one of the ears of her hat, evidentially thinking about the problem as well.

"Think we could bring it down?" Finn asked.

"No, we'd get buried if we tried. And I don't know about you but I'm not climbing that."

Finn shook his head. He didn't have a fear of heights, and knew he was a good climber, but unlike a tree, this pile seemed ready to fall apart. Fionna snapped her fingers behind him.

"Maybe this is a trick. Let's see if there's a button somewhere that make stairs or something!" she suggested.

The pair moved to the base of the pile, separating to find some switch or lever to show them the answer. Their search was very quickly interrupted by a rumbling from the pile. They both sprinted back to the catacombs, ready to flee if the pile started coming down on them. To their surprise however, the pile started to gather itself together instead of falling apart. The various bones started to shift and align, forming what looked like a giant humanoid figure. Arms spread out and large bone-locked hands formed, as did two large legs. The red glow continued, but the bones formed around it and created a large skull, eye sockets being lit by the now sinister seeming red light. Now fully formed, the bone golem stretched its arms into the air and let out a mighty yawn that shook dust from the catacomb shelves.

Finn and Fionna stood with eyes wide as the creature folded itself over to stand hunched, with its large arms acting as supports. Neither of them actively noticed that they were grasping one another's hands. Though devoid of eyes, they could feel the golem's gaze fall over them, as it leaned its head forward. The creature's makeshift jaw creaked open, and a booming voice echoed from it.

**"Who dares to enter our tomb?"**

* * *

**Post A/N: Suspenseful ending! I know the AT wiki calls Monochromicorns their own race but that's such a minute detail I elected to ignore it.**


	11. Under Attack

Finn and Fionna drew their blades out in tandem, each taking a step away from the other to give themselves room to fight. The golem made no immediate moves to attack or impede the pair however, so they kept their guard up but refrained from charging. Fionna shot Finn a look, guessing that between the pair of them he would be the first to attack. Finn also turned to look at her, raising an eyebrow and jerking his head towards the creature, silently asking if they should engage. Fionna shook her head slightly, looking back to the creature before them who was busy swinging its gaze from one adventurer to the other. It then raised itself up to peer past the high walls of the catacombs, looking down on the maze.

**"None have reached here before without alerting our subjects, we are impressed."**

The golem backed down, sitting on its hindquarters and lowering its arms to its sides. Finn thought it looked almost comical, such a creature taking such a relaxed pose. Fionna felt her familiar suspicion rise at the creature's actions, but allowed herself to lower her sword when Finn did. She certainly didn't trust the thing, but it didn't seem interested in hurting them at the moment. Finn took a few steps forward, cupping his hands around his mouth to make his voice reach the golem's head.

"Thanks! What is this place?"

The hulking creature raised a hand and swung it in a grandiose fashion around the room.

**"This is the Mausoleum of Argonel, the last remnants of our once great city," **it boomed, **"our people lived here ages ago before this mountain was buried in ice and snow."**

Fionna blew out a low whistle, if what Marshall had told her about the Ice Queen held true here, that was at least several hundred years ago when the Ice monarchs first came to their respective mountains. She felt her interest pique, and also approached the beast, standing beside Finn once again.

"What happened when the snow came?" she asked.

**"The mad king of Ice tried to freeze us, claiming that the mountain was his. We hid beneath the ground, finding these caverns."**

"Did he seal you down here?" Finn inquired.

**"No, we locked ourselves away when we found this."**

The golem reached its hands up to its head and, with a horrible cracking sound, split its own skull open to reveal the red glow within. It clasped whatever the item was and removed it, lowering its hand to show the pair. Sitting on the large ivory palm was a red crystal, almost half Finn's size, that pulsed and glowed with an angry crimson. Fionna peered into its depths and saw what looked like a raging fire inside of it. Finn and Fionna exchanged looks, both interested and wary of what the object was. The golem replaced its treasure, pushing the bones of its skull back together whereupon they re-wove themselves into a more solid form.

**"The crystal was a blessing to us, full of nurturing fire and cherished light. But it was too powerful for any us, so we hid it away with magic and pledged our lives to keep it from the world."**

"Wow," Fionna said reverently, "that was a noble thing to do."

**"We do not-"**

The beast stopped, its massive jaw slamming shut as it froze in place. Finn and Fionna looked at each other with concern, wondering what had just happened. As silence filled the cold chamber once more, the pair heard a sound coming from behind them. They both turned their heads, gazes directed upwards towards the noise. The tunnels from which they had come were fully visible, as the collected light of hundreds of crystals shone from the cavern walls with surprising intensity. The low hum had built up to an impressive degree, but when the sound had finally escaped the tunnel in full it echoed off the walls of the catacombs, building in volume and power. Finn felt his body shaking in resonance to the sound, and had a feeling something bad was about to happen. Fionna looked at the bone golem, which had yet to move again. The glow from the crystal in its head was increasing in severity, shining out from the myriad of gaps between the golem's bones. She turned back to Finn with a look of fear in her eyes.

"Finn! We gotta get out of here!"

The golem's jaw opened again, though it appeared to be struggling this time, and its voice rang out over the din of the crystals.

**"We are sorry, we had hoped you could have freed us."**

The growing kaleidoscope of lights from the tunnels spread to the walls of the catacombs, as crystals far above the pair joined in the reverberations of light and sound. Veins of crystal began to appear on the walls, all of which snaked their way quickly towards the rear of the chamber, where the pair stood with the golem. Faster than either of them could react, the lines of crystals lit up all around the golem, revealing a large circle that it was placed in. The sound had grown to a near deafening roar, causing Finn and Fionna to clasp their hands over their ears and curl up from the intensity. Fionna dimly heard Finn crying out her name but she found herself powerless to reply.

In an instant, the roar of the crystals cut out completely, leaving nothing but echoes as they died away. Finn shook his head and jumped to his feet, running over to Fionna who was similarly trying to clear her head. She stood as he got to her, giving a weak thumb up as the ringing in her ears started to subside. They both turned to look at the golem before them and were unsettled to see the crimson glow in its eyes had turned to blood-red flames. The golem's body rippled as the bones of its form restructured somewhat, claws forming on its hands, its skull grew horns, and its teeth reformed into more vicious looking fangs. Finn and Fionna took the cue and grabbed up their blades, giving themselves some space to fight and awaiting the golem's first move. They were distracted however, by the clattering of bones coming from behind them.

The skeletal legions of the catacombs had also sprung to life, taking up their tools and weapons and starting to approach the pair from behind. Finn could hear the mounting echo of bone and steel as they started navigating the maze to close in. The nearest skeletons had already rounded the corner, wicked blades and ornate armour reflecting the sickly green torch lighting and the furious glow of the golem's crystal. Fionna half turned, pushing her back up against Finn's.

"Big guy or little guys?" she asked simply, feeling her muscles tense in anticipation of combat.

"I'll start with the big guy," Finn replied, "we'll tap out if we have to."

Fionna nodded, bringing her blade up to her side as she tried to calm herself and focus on her foes. She'd been in dire straits before, but this time she had another concern on her mind. If she failed, Finn would die too, and she couldn't bear the thought of getting him killed after all he'd done for her. She steeled herself, locking that out as a possibility. They were going to get out.

Finn felt a fear he wasn't used to grip his gut as he faced the golem, now raging and smashing the ground around it. The true danger of the situation sunk into him: surrounded, and without Jake to get them an easy way out, it was fight or die in a whole new way. He closed his eyes briefly, taking a breath and finding his courage. Jake or not, he refused to allow the possibility of being defeated, especially when he knew Fionna needed him as much as he needed her if they were going to get out of this in one piece. He felt a fire light in his chest and straightened his posture, a calmness falling over him that he wasn't used to. He turned back to Fionna and placed a hand on her shoulder, gripping her tightly for a brief moment.

"Be careful Fionna." was all he could say.

She rubbed her cheek against his hand for a moment, grateful for his presence.

"You too, don't let that thing break you."

They separated, Fionna calmly approaching the skeletal horde that marched towards her as Finn took up his sword and charged the golem with a battle cry on his lips.

The golem slammed its fists on the ground hard enough that Finn felt the ground shake under him, and it unleashed an unearthly roar that nearly knocked him over. He gripped his sword tighter, pushing his legs to carry him under the golem with all haste. It took a swing at him with its fist, dragging its arm along the ground to sweep Finn away. The boy shouted and jumped, smashing his sword into the bony arm as it passed under him and using the force to propel himself over and away from the threat. He landed hard but recovered quickly, trying to get inside the golem's space so it couldn't squash him so easily. The creature was enormous but slow, and Finn hoped that if he could get under it, he'd have an advantage. He got between its legs and swung his blade out at a huge bony thigh, feeling the blow connect hard. Shards of bone flew in every direction but Finn could see he'd only cracked one of the dozens of bones that made up its leg. If he could land enough blows, he thought he might be able to shear the thing's leg out from under it. He readied another swing but found his balance compromised by the golem stomping its other foot, missing the boy but sending tremors out that rocked Finn's footing. He tried to compensate and brought the blade down, but this blow merely deflected off the hard bone, leaving his hands aching from the feedback.

Fionna sidestepped a clumsy swing from the first skeleton of the pack, punching her sword hilt into its face and watching with some satisfaction as the skull popped off and the body fell to the ground in a heap. The others showed no sign of caring, walking overtop of their fallen brother as if he wasn't there. Fionna swept her blade across two of her foes, feeling her powerful swing blast apart the skeleton's structures and knocking them aside. She felt some of her worry lift; though they were numerous, these skeletons weren't being held together by much, and smashing them apart would be easy. Another approached her and brought a sword blade down at her head, but she caught it on her own and turned it aside. She kicked out with her leg and knocked the skeleton's pelvis out, causing it to fall to pieces. Any elation she felt at the ease of her opponent's demise was short lived however, as the tide of skeletal foes slowly but surely began to pile up in front of her. She swung her sword fiercely from side to side, cutting arms, legs, and skulls with abandon, but her opponents showed no fear or concern for their existence as they continued to mob her. She felt herself backpedalling, trying to keep enough space between her and the horde that she wouldn't be overwhelmed. She could hear Finn's yelling and the roar of the golem behind her, and she realized that she would run out of space entirely too soon. She gripped her blade more tightly and slashed more fiercely, using the force of her blows to drive the skeletons back into one another.

Finn dove to the side, narrowly avoiding being crushed under the golem's heel as it stomped again. He rolled back upright, looking at the leg he'd been attacking and feeling discouraged. He'd landed a solid five blows already and the damage seemed superficial at best. Deciding he need a new plan he ran behind the golem, scanning its back for weak points. He was surprised however when both the creature's arms rotated in their sockets and came at him from either side. He attempted to hit the ground and felt the air of one hand pass over him, but the golem had dragged the other one along the ground again and scooped him up in it. Its grip was crushing, and Finn wheezed as he felt the air be pressed out of him. The creature brought Finn in front of its hollow face and let out another shattering roar, this one dazing Finn from the proximity. It threw the boy at Fionna, already bored with him and looking for a new foe.

Fionna heard Finn's cry of surprise get closer behind her and she leapt aside just before Finn sailed past, crashing into the skeletons in front of him. The sea of bones stopped moving for a moment, as the force rippled back through them. Finn moaned and hauled himself out of the pile, relieved that he didn't feel anything broken. Fionna cried a warning to him and he lurched forwards, narrowly avoiding a pike being swung at his head. Fionna charged forwards and hacked several nearby skeletons apart, buying Finn the time he needed to free himself from their midst. He gasped in a breath and rubbed his ribs, looking back at the golem that was approaching. Fionna noticed his pain and looked at the golem behind her.

"Trade me Finn," she implored, "I have an idea for that guy, buy me some time."

Finn nodded and looked at the skeletons closing in, his eyes sweeping over their various weapons. He handed Fionna his sword with a serious look, which she accepted without argument. She turned and sprinted away, luring the golem away from Finn and the catacomb walls, leaving him to face the bony minions. Finn cracked his knuckles and smirked, now **this** was his kind of fight. He dove into their ranks, swinging wildly with fist and foot as he blasted apart the first handful of skeletons he came upon. He saw one drop large, rounded, blacksmith's hammer and scooped it up, bringing it to bear on the head of another minion that had wandered too close. He hammered his way through the skeletal ranks, leaving bones and debris in his wake as he pressed onwards, drawing the horde further into the catacombs to give Fionna room to work. He hoped she knew what she was doing, he wasn't going to be able to get to her to help if something went wrong.


	12. On the Offensive

**A/N:** Might have to settle for updates every other day, life's going to be busy for the next couple weeks. Hope everyone's still enjoying, as I sure am.

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Fionna ran with both blades at her side, quickly finding her new center of balance and letting her arm adjust to the increased weight of Finn's sword. The golem turned ponderously to follow her, but couldn't swing at her and keep its balance at the same time. She circled it once, looking for weak points and managing to stay in its blind spot as she moved, keeping her temporarily safe. She wasn't sure how best to attack it, as it was monstrous compared to her. She guessed it was around 60 feet tall, with short legs and large arms. It had a noticeable curve in its spine and stood hunched over, unable to turn or move with any amount of speed. As she completed a full circle around the creature she turned her gaze down the catacomb hall, seeing Finn push his way through the skeletons and draw them back, giving her space to breathe and somewhere to run if things went badly. She turned back to the golem, which was still struggling to keep up with her movements, and formulated a plan. As Finn's ultimately futile attacks on the leg showed her, hacking it to pieces wasn't an option. She looked up at the glow in its skull and wondered if she could get inside its head somehow. Her instincts told her that the crystal was the key, as the golem had been docile until the chain reaction of crystals they'd touched had woken the gem inside. She ran alongside the cavern wall, eyes peeled for any rocks jutting out that she could vault off of. Its legs were only around ten feet up, and if she could get on one maybe she could climb it. Finding a suitably raised rock, she swung her blade across it and scratched a deep, noticeable line into it that she could spot from a distance. Continuing on, she made another circuit around the golem as it pursued her with no sign of tiredness or frustration. Fionna's path carried her around and back to the rock, which she now saw coming, and as she reached it she leapt, planted both feet firmly down on the raised rock face, and pushed off with all her might, soaring towards the golem's upper leg with her blades readied.

Finn swung with abandon, admitting to himself that he was rather enjoying this. He'd caught a glimpse of Fionna easily keeping out of the golem's reach, and with her seemingly able to handle things, he could really take some time to appreciate smashing his foes. Hammer and fist flew out from the boy, knocking apart the waves of skeletons as if they were nothing. He pushed further, stopping just short of turning the corner so he could still see the golem and occasionally Fionna, and planted his feet. Finn looked around the corner and down the long corridor and felt his elation dry up. The hallway was packed with skeletons, easily numbering in hundreds if not thousands, as they marched in step with one another towards him. Shaking his head, he pushed his fear out of his mind and focused on his current job of keeping the tide at bay. He spotted what looked like a large maul on a nearby skeleton and threw his smaller hammer at it, obliterating its skull. Finn dashed forward and snatched the two-handed hammer before it fell to the ground and pulled it around in a massive circle, casting bones to the wind as he lay all around him low. The maul crashed into the ground after his spin and he heaved it up with a rough yell of exertion, spreading his feet to try and distribute the heavy load. Finn hefted the weapon in his hands and grinned at the bony legion, daring them to take him on now. He swung the mighty hammer across the hallway, dashing another oncoming group of skeletons. He nearly fell over from the weight pulling him along with the swing, but repositioned and readied himself for his next attack. He hoped Fionna was having more luck than he'd had against the golem, because he wasn't sure how long he could keep on swinging.

Fionna stabbed her blades into the golem's thigh with all her might, satisfied when they found grooves between the bones making up its legs and slid in, bracing her as she stood on its thigh. The golem stopped turning and reached a hand towards her, cupping it to squish her against its leg. She pulled her blades free and crouched, waiting for the just the right moment to act. As the bony palm came in, she jumped again, hauling her feet up as she did so the hand passed under her and smashed against its side. She landed on its hand, taking but a moment to get her balance, and immediately began to run up its arm before it could react. She'd nearly reached its elbow before it flung its hand out, attempting to throw her away. Fionna jumped again, aiming back at the golem's massive body, and hit hard against its ribcage, feeling her sword fall out of her grasp as the impact jarred her whole body. Using her now free hand she wrapped her arm around one of its ribs, keeping her dangling as it rose up on its legs and brought its other hand in to swat her. She kicked her legs in the air beneath her, finding bones below and using them to help push her upwards. She got over the rib she was clinging to and jumped inside its empty body, narrowly avoiding being crushed as its hand brushed across its ribs. Having lost her own sword she took up Finn's in both hands, jamming it into the golem's spine as she fell inside of it. She thanked Glob when it found purchase, sliding in to lock between the smaller bones once again and bringing her fall to a jarring halt. Her shoulders screamed in protest, and Fionna was thankful she hadn't gone much further down or the she might have dislocated her arms trying to stop herself. She heaved her body upwards, grabbing the golem's spine with her free hand and finding it easy to cling to. She braced herself against the spine with her hand and leaned out, yanking Finn's sword free with her other. Fionna peered through the monster's ribs to see what it was doing, and yelped as she saw it reaching both hands into its hollow center to try and get at her. Large bony fingers poked through the holes in its ribs, and she quickly started scurrying up its spine as best she could to get away from its hands and closer to its head.

After a dozen swings, Finn's arms had begun to burn with the effort of moving the heavy hammer. Worse yet, his foes weren't dwindling in number, if anything there were more of them turning various corners to join the large hallway leading to him. He made a half-hearted swing, wincing at the stabbing pain in his muscles. He looked back at the golem, trying to judge Fionna's progress. He didn't pick her out immediately, and the golem had its back turned, but he did see an orange-y red object sticking out of the ground at the creature's feet. He took a few steps back to buy himself a second glance, and focused his eyes on the item. His eyes widened in fear as he saw it was Fionna's sword. Finn's battle crazed mind could only find a single explanation in the instant he recognized the blade: that the golem had gotten Fionna. A complex tide of emotions washed over him in a heartbeat, but one rose above all the others; rage. He found new strength in his limbs as he hefted his maul, his fatigue forgotten in the face of the vengeance that boiled in his veins. He took a parting swing at the skeletal horde, hitting the front ranks so hard that their bone shards caused a small domino effect, toppling the first few ranks. Finn turned and charged the golem, releasing a hoarse scream of rage as he closed on it.

The golem raised its head, detecting a new sound from behind it, and it turned around to find the source. It looked down to see Finn charge it, giant hammer in hand, and it pulled its fingers out of its ribcage. The creature reared up once more and slammed the ground with both fists, roaring its own challenge back at the boy as he left the catacomb walls and hit a dead sprint.

Fionna heard Finn's battle cry but couldn't see what was happening from inside the beast. She kept climbing, coming ever closer to the top of the spine where she hoped she'd find a way to stop the crystal, and the golem with it. The golem's roar however shook every tiny bone that made up its enormous body, and Fionna had to fight desperately just to hold on. She took a chance to peer out of its ribs again and saw Finn charging it screaming. She was too high up inside to be able to signal him, and between his scream and the golem's roaring and smashing she doubted she could get him to hear her. She elected instead to use the golem's distraction to her advantage, and pushed herself even harder to scale its massive body. She had to destroy it before it killed Finn, she just had to.

Finn was only distantly aware of his own thoughts as he got inside the golem's reach. His body acted entirely on instinct as large bony hands started to lash out at him and Finn threw himself completely into his berserker rage. He ducked and leapt, but he never stopped moving back under its leg to where his previous assault had been aimed. The golem tried to smash the boy flat, but couldn't even get close, as Finn's honed adventuring instincts carried himself safely out of the way of the pendulous swings the golem rained down on the ground around him. Finn's path was erratic, as he turned and zigzagged wildly to keep ahead of the golem's attacks. Some currently forgotten part of Finn's mind got through to him, with a single thought that galvanized him further: the golem seemed scared. Using that knowledge to push himself harder, Finn darted underneath its legs, found the cracks where his previous hits had landed, and swung his maul with everything he had. The hammer blow hit with crushing force, and the sound of bones snapping echoed through the cavern. Finn's mind cleared for a moment when he witnessed his handiwork; the golem's leg was nearly smashed in two, and the remaining bones buckled under the weight they were attempting to support. With another echoing crack, they gave out and the golem's leg fell to the ground, leaving it without its support. It pounded both fists into the ground at its sides, trying to brace itself, but its sudden shift in balance left it unable to compensate and it fell to the ground hard. Finn kept moving, getting out from under the golem as it came down. The impact shook him, but he stood his ground, his knuckles white from the grip he kept on the hammer. His arms and wrists were radiating pain as they'd been forced to absorb the rebound of the blow that he'd just landed, but Finn pushed it out of his mind. He wasn't done yet.

Fionna cracked an eye open, peering around and finding that the golem had more or less stopped moving. She released the death grip she had on its spine and looked out again, not seeing or hearing Finn. The golem's sudden stop worried her, what had happened out there to stop it? A cold feeling swept through her as she considered the most obvious answer.

_It got Finn... no way, it couldn't have..._

She shook for a moment, unable to process what had happened, before she pushed it all behind a wall of anger. She took up Finn's sword and scrambled up the spine, finding a place to stand on the inside of the base of the golem's skull. She could clearly see the crystal from her position, hovering inside the skull above her. She vaulted inside the skull proper, being careful to scale the bony protrusions at the back of the skull and avoid its jaw and eyes, where it could easily crush or reach her. She moved with a cold purpose, finding every step without falter, the weariness in her muscles forgotten. She reached into what she assumed was where its brain would be and stood facing the crimson gem she'd sought. It shone ominously, bathing its ivory chamber in blood red. Fionna took up Finn's sword in both hands and leapt high in the air, bringing the blade to bear on the crystal with her own battle cry on her lips.


	13. Inner Fire

**A/N:** I'm still up in the air about where this is going, and whether or not I'm going to end it soon and do a sequel story or just make this epically long. Either way, hope everyone's still been liking it. Leave a review if you have thoughts on how this could be better, I feel like action writing is a weak point of mine. Also, I'm going to do a bunch of QoL edits to this story, so apologies if followers of the story get bombarded with notifications, I don't have any idea how that works.

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In the span of a blink, Fionna suddenly found herself in an endless field of white. She stood confused, looking around and seeing nothing in all directions. All she could detect around her was a faint thump every few seconds, like a very slow heartbeat. She looked at her hand, seeing Finn's sword still grasped in it, but the crystal she'd sought to destroy was nowhere to be found. Her brain ran through confusion into anger, when she realized she'd somehow lost her chance to destroy the crystal, then she shifted to fear when the fact that she was trapped... nowhere at all sunk in. She forced herself to try and stay calm, breathing slowly and trying desperately to spot something in the white expanse around her.

"Alright you punk, where'd you take me?" she yelled into the emptiness.

"Somewhere we can talk," a deep and controlled voice replied, "I have a proposition for you."

Fionna whirled her head around and saw the crystal before her, hovering and glowing as it had back in the golem's head. She took up Finn's sword and bared her teeth at it.

"I have nothing to say to you."

"Not even if I could send you home?"

She stopped short of cleaving the red gem, holding the sword steady at her side but making no further moves.

"You're lying. If you could leave then you would have done it already." she hissed.

"Not so. I'm a crystal, how do you propose I'd move? I bear knowledge young one, and I ask you to use it. Take me with you and I'll show you how to open a portal back to your world."

Fionna's mind toyed with the possibility of it telling her the truth, but she remained skeptical.

"And what happens then? When I have a portal back?"

"Take me with you, or leave me in the care of another, it matters not to me. Though I suppose I could aid you in your pursuit of Gumball should you desire it..."

"What do you know about Gumball?" she demanded, "And how do you know any of this anyways?"

"Your mind is open to me Fionna, and I can give you what you want most. I can give you the power to be the greatest of heroes, I can give you knowledge that would make Prince Gumball swoon, I can gift you the secrets of the universe."

Visions came unbidden to Fionna's mind, of what her life could be like if she could finally have the things she wanted. Being a hero even greater than Wilhelmina, finally having Gumball take her seriously instead of keeping her in a safety bubble in his mind, maybe even helping fix the Ice Queen so she'd stop being such a pill. Didn't she deserve more for all the work she'd done for Ooo? Wasn't that fair? Silence reigned in the empty worldspace as she mulled over the possibilities, save for the rhythmic beating that echoed around her.

Finn raised the maul again, pain and weariness assaulting him as he brought it down on the golem's skull, sending another dull thud echoing through the chamber. It hadn't budged since it fell over, but the eerie glow coming from inside of it had intensified, and Finn refused to stop until he'd smashed that crystal into dust. Shards of bone exploded out in all directions as the hammer smashed another dent into its target, pelting Finn's body with sharp pieces. He ignored it, focusing all of his energy on continuing his rhythmic blows on the skull. Some part of his mind kept telling him that he owed it to Fionna to kill it for real, to avenge her, and he chose to embrace it wholeheartedly.

Fionna's visions continued, taking her through what her life could be like if she used the crystal to her benefit. She felt a somewhat euphoric feeling wash over her as she contemplated this new life. The crystal hovered impassively in front of her.

"It could be yours Fionna, just take me from this place. Lay down your sword, you won't need it."

Fionna drew her gaze to the sword in her hand. Her fuzzy mind acknowledged that it wouldn't be necessary, but a dull corner screamed at her to pay attention. She blinked a few times and looked again, her dozy conscious recognizing the blade as Finn's and not hers.

_Finn's..._

She grabbed her head with her other hand, as the events in the catacombs came rushing back to her, fighting with the visions of her perfect life. The distant thumping was getting louder, and more urgent, and her thoughts swam in a tumultuous mess as Fionna tried to sort herself out.

Finn saw a small result from his frenzied attack, a crack large enough to see through that poured out crimson light like the golem's eye sockets. Finn peered inside the skull, hoping to see his target. What he gazed upon was Fionna, frozen in midair in front of the crystal, the whole interior devoid of colour save for the red glow of the gem. Seeing Fionna gave Finn a resurgence of strength, and he called out her name as he brought the maul down once more, destroying the barrier between him and the girl he so desperately wanted to save.

**_FIONNA!_**

The voice cut through everything; the echo, the crystal's gentle insistence, and her jumbled sea of thoughts, to rouse Fionna from her stupor. Finn's voice filled her head, letting her fully remember the fight they'd just gone through. She remembered the pain and anger of thinking he was gone, and the cold fury that she'd felt for the crystal that caused it. She lifted her head defiantly at the crystal as her mind ripped apart the last vestiges of the spell that the stone had cast on her. Freed from its influence, she felt her anger return and took up Finn's sword.

"I don't need power, I don't need Gumball, and I don't need you!"

She raised the blade above her head and brought it down, screaming wordlessly in rage at the cursed gem that so nearly tricked her. The blade cleaved through the gem and the white space around her dissolved in an instant. She returned to the golem's skull, and the flow of time in the room resumed, with her coming down atop the crystal. She descended with Finn's blade pointed straight down, and stabbed the demon-blood sword into the top of the gem with all of her might.

Finn gasped a breath of air as the wall of bone fell away from him and he leapt into the skull as time returned to normal inside. He watched Fionna descend and impale the crystal, and he felt a slightly manic grin come over his face in catharsis. She rested a moment, her weight forcing the sword further down into the crystal, before she lifted her head to Finn and lit up.

"Finn! You're ok!" she cried happily.

Finn opened his mouth to answer but his voice, hoarse from his screams and yells, could barely whisper a reply. He settled for smiling and nodding at her, giving a weary thumbs up and making his way across the skull to her. As he approached however, he noticed that the gem didn't seem broken. In fact it was starting to glow more intensely. He shouted at Fionna to get down but no words came from his battered throat, so he did the next thing he could think of and leapt at her. She looked down in time to see the crystal start to change before Finn's weight hit her full force and carried her away from it. The pair crashed into the bone wall on the far side of the skull and they fell heavily in a heap. Neither had any time to react before the crystal's glow seemed to retract, becoming contained inside the stone itself rather than shining outwards. The temperature in the cavity started to rise, and Fionna suddenly found it somewhat difficult to breathe. Finn's blade started to deform and warp, as the crystal's heat increased and start melting the blade. Both adventurers moved to stand but the crystal radiated a powerful heat wave that hit them both like a solid wall. They fell, pinned and drained by the sudden increase of temperature inside the room. The crystal started to launch errant tongues of flame from the cracks that had formed when Fionna had stabbed it. Bursts of flame began flashing around the room, and Finn rolled over top of Fionna as one washed over the pair, shielding her body with his. He cried out, his ragged voice cracking at the effort, as he felt the flames bite into his back and arms.

Finn knew a thing or two about getting burned, after all he'd willingly subjected himself to an awful lot of fire while dating the Flame Princess. And despite the pain he gritted his teeth and bore through it, because compared to FP, this gem was a wimp. The flame tongue dissipated, and Finn rose and turned, quickly locating his discarded maul. He looked at Fionna for an instant, hoping that she'd see in his eyes that he wasn't leaving her to get cooked, and he made a break for his fallen weapon. The crystal seemed aware once more, as it shot darts of flame at the boy as he made his way across the chamber. More fire wreathed around Finn as he ran but he ignored it, continuing to tell himself that this was nothing, and he'd dealt with far more. He reached his fallen hammer and brought it up, turning on his heel and vaulting towards the hovering crystal. It made a last ditch fireball and cast it at him, but its attempt came far too late. Finn brought the maul down with conviction, bursting the fireball into a thousand embers and continuing on to strike the top of his sword like a nail. The force of the blow drove the sword entirely into the crystal, where the blade seemed to burst into its own fire. Finn saw the flames of the crystal and sword twist together inside of the crystal, before they immediately and violently exploded. Finn felt the shockwave and heat from the blast hit him and he flew across the room, colliding once more with the bone wall, before everything abruptly went black.

Fionna raised her head back into the skull's cavity, having rolled into the hole leading down into the golem's body. When Finn ran for the hammer, Fionna had attempted to get to safety so he could fight without worrying about her. She surveyed the area, already feeling the temperature lowering once more. Bone fragments were everywhere, as were small shards of the crystal, which was finally destroyed. She saw Finn lying motionless in a pile of bone and quickly scrambled up into the skull to get to him. She knelt before him, pushing away the debris that had fallen on him, and checked him for a pulse and signs of breathing. She puffed out her own sigh of relief when she found he was alive, but unconscious. His clothes had been all but incinerated, clinging to him in patches and hunks of burnt cloth. His skin was also severely burnt, though it seemed that his chest, back, and arms had received the worst of it. She took a moment to check herself over, noting a dozen or more cuts, several bruises that were already forming, and an extremely distracting pain in her head. Nothing appeared broken though, so she bent down and did her best to remove Finn from the skull without aggravating his injuries any more. She peered out of the skull and noted that while the hallway in front of her was packed with skeletons, none of them had moved in to finish them off. She took the briefest moment of pride that her plan had ultimately worked, and the crystal was in fact the thing that was controlling the skeletal horde. She returned to Finn's side, wondering how best to get him out of the skull so she could tend to his injuries. She nearly jumped out of her skin when a booming voice echoed through the cavity.

**"We cannot thank you enough. You have destroyed the cursed crystal and have freed us from our enslavement."**

Fionna felt extremely uneasy standing inside the head of something that was talking to her, but she was in no situation to do anything about it. She stood, hoping that the skeletons could somehow help her now.

"Please, help my friend and me. I can't get him out of here and he might die!"

Fionna waited several tense seconds, and started to despair when no response came. She fell to her knees beside Finn and bunched her fists, angry at her inability to do anything for him. She whirled around when she heard scraping nearby, and was surprised to see a handful of the skeletons had walked inside the skull to join them. Fionna stood and moved out of their way as they gathered around Finn, and carefully picked him up between six of them. They marched back out, carrying him through the hole in the golem's head, and started marching him through the catacombs. Another skeleton came in and scooped up the maul Finn had been using and also carried it out. Fionna moved to leave, but quickly scanned the debris for Finn's sword. What she found was the hilt, laying on its own, with the blade having melted or been blown away. She felt a pang of guilt for ruining Finn's family sword, as she knew how much her own meant to her, and she placed the hilt in her pack. She quickly left the golem and followed the procession of skeletons, only stopping long enough to collect her own sword from another of the bony minions who had retrieved it for her. Her entire body ached and all she wanted to do was fall down and sleep, but she was too worried about Finn to let herself slow down now. The horde led Fionna out of the maze in short order, bringing the pair to the base of the long stairway and carefully ascending it. Fionna watched them pass Finn along between them as he snaked his way up and she was terrified that they would drop him, but the skeletal hands were steady and Finn made it to the top in one piece. As Fionna made it to the platform the skeletons turned and walked back down, the entire horde dissolving as they replaced themselves in their catacomb walls. As the walls started to fill, they sunk into the ground, taking the skeletons with them into some form of final rest. Fionna felt an urge to bow her head reverently at them as they departed.

"Thank you, rest in peace."

**"Our thanks are to you young ones,"** the golem's distant voice echoed to them, **"go with our blessing, and our eternal gratitude.**"

Fionna squared herself, turned back to Finn, and knelt at his side to check his condition. She ran a hand down his face, fighting a tear as it formed in her eye.

_You have to be okay Finn, you're the only one I've got in this whole world. Please..._


	14. Reflection

**A/N:** Going to be out of town for the next few days, so the next update won't be until Friday night or Saturday. Also big thanks to everyone who has left me such nice reviews, I'm really glad that you guys are liking this story!

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"Come on Finn, don't be such a lazybones!"

Finn opened his eyes, recognizing the familiar voice. He saw a beautiful expanse of stars over his head and rolling green fields out in all directions.

He also experienced a very distinct sense of déjà vu.

He turned to the voice, a small voice in his mind telling him who he already knew would be there, and sure enough Flame Princess sat at his side. She was different now, her head was already in elemental form and the demon-esque visage grinned at him. He shivered and rolled away, rising to his feet and backing away from her. He opened his mouth to speak but couldn't think of a single thing to say to her, caught between confusion and fear as her flames grew and she rose to face him. He put his hands up defensively as he retreated, stammering but failing to produce any cohesive sentence. She raised a hand to him ominously and stopped, her twisted grin taking on a manic look.

"Hold still sweetie, I think I see a bug on you."

In a flash Flame Princess began spewing a torrent of flame towards Finn, who yelled out in terror and dove to the side. He landed hard, trying to get his feet back under him when another flash blinded him temporarily and he felt agony pour through him. He rolled down the hill, trying to escape FP's fury, but wound up landing in a heap in a ditch. Flame Princess had followed calmly, hand still extended, and all around her flames broke out on the hillside. In the span of a few seconds the flames had grown to an inferno that scoured the earth and lit up the night, spreading in all directions. Finn could only lift his arms to shield his face as he saw her gather another ball of fire to her hand. He braced himself for the pain but was surprised when none came, and upon returning his gaze forwards he saw a figure standing between him and his doom. The figure was obscured to him but through the backlight provided by Flame Princess he could distinctly see a silhouette with long ears and an awfully familiar sword.

The figure flew forward, disappearing into a giant wall of fire conjured by Flame Princess and Finn was again left to cower as more flames washed over his body. He cried out and huddled, covering his face and trying to wait out the pain. He was barely aware of the light around him dimming, as the fires died down and calm once again returned to the fields. He fell limp, aching and tired, unwilling to move. His saviour appeared over him and he saw Fionna's concerned face looking down on him. His body refused to move to acknowledge her, and he remained passive as she kneeled beside him. He felt her hand run down his face, and a strange calmness came over him.

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Finn's eyes opened slowly, and he had a moment to digest a few things around him. Firstly, Fionna was looking down at him with watery eyes and concern etched all over her face. He felt her hand resting on his face, cool and soft, which felt better than he ever imagined it could have.

It also gave him the opportunity to feel the rainbow palette of other pain that assaulted his body, making him regret ever waking up.

He watched Fionna's face spring to life upon seeing him awaken, and she placed her forehead delicately against his, choking out a sob.

"Oh Glob, you're ok," she whispered, "I was worried..."

Finn exerted more willpower than he knew he had to fight through his pain and discomfort and place his hand on the back of her neck, willing them to be closer than they already were. He started to lift his torso up, grunting at the effort and the kaleidoscope effect that it had on his swimming vision, but he pushed his arm further, wrapping it around Fionna. She carefully encircled him with her own arms, careful not to rub his burned skin, and returned his embrace. The pair stayed like that in silence, half relieved that the other was still alive and half just enjoying the feeling of being close to one another. Eventually they separated, Fionna rising and helping Finn to stand.

He felt truly terrible, his body covered in cuts, bruises, and nasty burns that sapped at his strength. He rose regardless, knowing that he'd recover no faster in the dirt and that getting to Bubblegum would likely be what would relieve him of his pain. He cast a sidelong glance at Fionna as she took some of his weight and slowly draped one of his arms over her shoulders. She looked fairly beaten up as well, but he was glad to see her devoid of any major burns. He was also glad to have her help now, as feeling her against him was the only thing that made him feel like he could keep moving.

Fionna chose to bury the tidal wave of feelings coursing through her, a trick she'd learned in her solo adventuring, so she could focus on getting the two of them out of the tomb and hopefully to safety. Finn's poor state of health was written all over him but she felt that the real sign of his weakness was how heavily he leaned on her as they proceeded. Not that she minded, she would have gladly carried him out on her back if she'd had to. She knew the kind of pride he had though, or at least she could guess based on her own, and relying so heavily on someone else was probably as unnatural to him as it was to her. She found some extra strength in this, as it meant that Finn trusted her. She hadn't known him for very long, but that was already a very important feeling to her. And she'd be damned if she was going to let him down now.

The pair picked a slow path back into the tunnel, finding its lights and sounds much more aggravating than pretty on the return trip. The crystals shone incessantly and continued their low hum, despite the destruction of what the pair had assumed was the source. They pressed on, reaching the base of the long stairwell and feeling the distant breeze of the open door softly blowing down. Finn tapped Fionna's shoulder and pointed at the wall by the stairs.

"Down." was all his battered voice could croak out.

She carefully helped him down to sit against the wall, where he gratefully felt the cold stone sooth his injured skin. He took a moment to breathe, and tried to talk again. A few rasping sounds made their way out, but he couldn't bring out anything intelligible. Fionna looked at his struggling and had an idea.

"One second Finn."

She dashed up the stairs, her legs groaning in protest at being forced into action again, until she reached around the halfway point. There she noticed that snow had begun to blow down the dungeon entrance and pile up on the steps. She stooped low and removed her hat, gathering as much as she could fit inside and bringing it back down to Finn. She placed the hat in his lap and looked at him hopefully. It only took the boy a moment to realize her intent, and he pushed a few handfuls of snow into his mouth, letting some water finally get to his parched throat. With some of the dryness alleviated, Finn tried speaking again.

"Thanks." he wheezed out.

"Don't try and talk right now," Fionna replied, "save your strength."

She turned to look up the long stairway, completely at a loss about how she'd get Finn out in the state he was in. Finn also looked up, but knew immediately that there was no way he'd make it up those stairs.

"Fionna, listen. You have to get Jake. I can't climb those," he jerked his head towards the stairs, "and if you carry me we'll both fall."

Fionna clenched her eyes shut, knowing he had a point but not wanting to leave him. She looked at him, and he reached out and patted her leg.

"I'll be fine, go."

"Alright, but you'd better not die while I'm gone!"

She tore her gaze from Finn's face and made her way up the stairs, refusing to look back. She hated every bit of this, leaving him there helpless while she found help. Her mind started listing through all the ways he could expire in her absence, and she had to fight to keep her breathing somewhat even.

How had he come to be so important to her so quickly? They'd literally met that morning, and here she was nearly a wreck over him. Fionna couldn't explain why, but she'd just felt such a strong connection to Finn when they'd met. It wasn't just that he was human, or her age, or even that he was a hero too. It was some weird sense of trust that she'd felt right away, a feeling like Finn was a person who she could be honest with and he'd accept her. It was a feeling she'd never really had the same way with any of the other men in her life. Gumball always put her in a bubble, treating her like a knight but also like a porcelain doll, something that he couldn't get close to for fear of breaking her. And Marshall Lee treated her like a child, never giving her the chance to prove herself or acknowledging that she knew more about something than he did. Finn was different; he'd met her as an equal, treated her as a friend, and risked his life at the drop of a hat for her, because that's just who he was. And she knew she'd never meet another person as genuine as he was.

She pushed all the morbid thoughts of Finn's fate from her mind and pressed on. He wasn't going to die if she had anything to say about it.

Finn rested against the wall, glad for the breeze and the reprieve from movement as he watched Fionna fly up the stairs. There were a million things he wanted to say to her, but he knew that now wasn't the time. All he could do was watch her go and whisper "good luck" to the wind, hoping she'd be back soon. He finally found himself with time to digest the events of the day and sort his brain out, which had been screaming a hundred things at him ever since he regained consciousness. He started by taking serious stock of his injuries, carefully feeling his arms, legs, and chest for broken bones. While he ached, his pains didn't seem to be the sharp, excruciating, feeling he'd experienced when the deer broke his legs. His burns were nasty but not permanently damaging, that crystal really was a wimp. None of his cuts were bleeding badly, so he wasn't concerned about blood loss. All in all he was a disaster of moderate injuries, but nothing seemed immediately life threatening. He felt slightly assured by this, letting himself sink a little more down the wall until he found a comfortable position. He had a feeling he'd have a while to wait before Fionna found help.

Fionna. Finn guessed it was time to sort out all the things his mind had bombarded him with all evening about her. It all still felt like a dream that she was with him at all, after he'd so thoroughly convinced himself that she'd been killed by the golem. In retrospect it was probably a good thing he had thought that, as it had given him the strength to see the rest of the fight through. He couldn't shake the giddy feeling in his chest that had blossomed as soon as he'd seen her alive in the skull's interior. Part of him wanted to be skeptical of the feeling, to try and keep Fionna at a distance since all his experiences with girls had ended with him in a lot of pain. He couldn't though, he felt too connected to Fionna to even want to push her away. There was someone in the world who was his age, his race, and who not only understood his passion but shared it. Fionna was everything he could have ever hoped to find in his life, and for once something so perfect hadn't come with an intense feeling of bearing a catch. He realized as he thought this though, that it wasn't actually true. There was a catch, and a pretty big one: Fionna lived in a whole other world, one that he might not even be able to get to once they sent her back. And he couldn't deal with that thought, of losing her so soon after meeting her. He huddled at the base of the stairs, feeling his conflicted emotions return, and he sighed. Nothing was ever easy.

Fionna exited the dungeon and felt the cold winds of the Ice Kingdom's night whip across her. Her hair blew around her head, and it occurred to her she'd left her hat with Finn. She gazed off in the direction she knew the Candy Kingdom was in, but knew it would take her well over two hours just to get there. She didn't want to leave Finn for that long, no matter how fast Jake could get back. Instead she turned around and looked at a much closer landmark, but one that she didn't relish the thought of going to. She pushed her hair out of her face and started walking towards the Ice King's mountain. Creep or not, he could fly, and one way or another he was going to take her to the Candy Kingdom.


	15. A Desperate Plan

**A/N:** Wow. Its been amazing reading your reviews and feeling like people are digging this. I'm back and ready to go again, and stay tuned tomorrow because I should have at least one more chapter up then. I've had a few days to think about what I'm doing here, so I'm excited to get back to it!

* * *

The Ice King sat on his throne morosely, wrestling with his mind as he attempted to sort out the evening's unexpected turn. He'd seen her, spoke to her, she'd even knocked his crown off, and he couldn't convince himself that she was just another vision like so many others. Yet he'd been totally unable to find her after she fled, and he found no sign of Finn either, leaving him skeptical about the whole thing. He groaned in frustration, sulking as he idly petted Gunter's head, who sat placidly by Ice King's throne. Though most of him wanted to be angry at the whole series of events and how he'd been denied the truth of the matter, a part of his brain was fully consumed by a childlike glee that he couldn't extinguish. Maybe she was real, maybe he'd wanted it enough, just maybe, the universe had conspired to give the Ice King a break for a change. That was something worth thinking about.

Fionna watched him mutter to himself from her vantage point outside of his window, perched somewhat precariously on the mountainside. She'd wanted to rush in and intimidate him, but she couldn't help but feel sorry for the sad looking man. She thought of her own Ice Queen, and how the few instances she'd been cooperative with Fionna they'd actually gotten along to an extent. Ice King seemed similar, he'd at least believed Finn to be a friend, implying that they'd stopped feuding so much. She sighed, hoping that the conversation she was about to have would play out positively. Finn didn't have time for her to hesitate, but she couldn't shake the creepy feeling she'd gotten when she'd first spoken to the Ice King. He knew her somehow, and implied that he'd known she would be here, meaning there was a possibility he was behind all this. Even as the thought occurred to her though, she immediately dismissed it. The man she looked upon was not one who had just pulled off a scheme; he looked like a man who was as confused with life as she was when she first got to this Ooo. She steeled herself, thought out what she was going to say, and hopped in the window. The Ice King immediately turned and lit up at seeing her, practically leaping out of his throne and running towards her. He opened his mouth to speak but Fionna cut him off by holding a hand out to stop him.

"Stop, listen to me. I don't know how you know me, and right now I don't care. You seem to be friends with Finn, at least enough that you two don't fight, and I need your help to save him right now." she stated clearly.

Ice King looked at Fionna with a mixture of awe and distrust, his mind battling over whether or not to believe she even existed or if she was just another elaborate vision. He listened to her words but barely perceived them, taking in her appearance and specifically how she really did look exactly like he'd imagined her when he wrote his stories. After a moment, her words registered and he snapped back to reality to see her looking at him impatiently, she seemed incredibly agitated. The Ice King put his hands on his hips, feeling his own agitation rise.

"Oh you need my help do you? How do I know you're even real? Or that this isn't some prank by Finn to make me miserable?" he shot back at her through gritted teeth.

Fionna was taken aback, not expecting this response nor knowing what to say about it. She backed down a little, feeling somewhat bad about trying to bully him in his own home.

"I'm real, I'm just not from here," she started, "and I don't know what pranks Finn has pulled on you, but this is serious. We were in a dungeon under the snow and Finn got hurt really bad, please I need you to fly me to the Candy Kingdom so I can get Jake to help him."

The Ice King's annoyance was immediately shattered by seeing how distraught Fionna seemed to be. He softened and walked towards her carefully, half wanting to console her and half wanting to make sure she was real after all. He got up in front of her and carefully put a hand on her shoulder, feeling another burst of glee when he met resistance and knew she was solid, real. He focused on her face, seeing the mixture of fear and desperation in her eyes and even his own fuzzy mind could comprehend how important her request was. He straightened, knowing he had to help, he wasn't about to let his best friend die. Plus, what better way to get on Fionna's good side than saving him?

"Alright alright, calm down, sheesh you'd think someone's life was at stake eh Gunter?"

The penguin gave him and unimpressed stare and a "Wonk" to get him focused.

"OK fine, where's Finn? Why don't I just fly him there?" he asked her, genuinely curious.

"He's at the bottom of a few hundred steps that I don't think you'd have room to fly down. Jake can stretch him up but he's with Bubblegum right now." she replied, fighting to keep her voice even as the Ice King wasted time.

"Since when does Finn go on adventures without Ja-" Ice King cut himself off abruptly and looked plainly at Fionna, remembering seeing the pair together earlier. "Wait wait wait, were you two on a DATE? Is he crazy? Flame Princess will destroy him! And probably the whole world while she's at it! Oh this is so unfair, he already has all the princesses fawning over him, why does he get you too?"

Fionna felt a frustration rise in her chest as she listened to the Ice King's ranting. She clenched her fists very tight, giving him the benefit of his insanity, as she patiently gave himself a moment to sort himself out.

"Not to mention that he almost got her to kill me once! Now he's two-timing her? I don't know why Marceline likes that little pest so much. Can't even share his princesses with me, I tell you the things I put up with. And furthermore-"

"ENOUGH!"

Fionna felt her patience wear away and her temper flare in its place and she stamped her foot down hard. She stopped just short of slugging the Ice King, as she knew if she started a fight this whole plan may have just been a costly waste of time. Instead she reigned in her frustration and jabbed a finger at him.

"Listen, you can sort out your insecurities later, right now we have to go before anything else happen to Finn. Please."

Ice King looked at her a moment, her words once more clearing some of the fog in his mind.

"Alright, but on one condition." he declared, a grin forming on his face.

"Name it."

* * *

Finn had lost track of time, but he was acutely aware that plenty of it had passed. His position slumped against the wall had been cool and comfortable at first, but as his adrenaline finally died down and his muscles cooled off he had begun to feel very cold. The constant gusts of air from outside weren't helping matters, and his face had started to feel numb. He couldn't know how much longer it would be until Fionna and Jake would return, and he didn't like the thought of freezing before they arrived. He pushed his arms to his sides, trying to rise, but his entire body screamed in protest at the movements and he involuntarily gasped at the symphony of pain that rose. He took a few breaths and tried again, managing to get his legs under him before he had to stop, crouching against the wall. He put forth one more colossal effort and managed to rise to his feet, though he immediately wished he hadn't. A surge of pain set in behind his eyes and his vision swam for a moment, making him nauseous as he clung to the wall to keep from falling over again. He let himself stand a moment, waiting for the sickness to retreat and his now splitting headache to settle before trying to go anywhere. He headed back into the tunnel one slow, careful step at a time, keeping an arm against the wall as he brought himself out of the drafty stairwell. Getting away from the wind, and moving around a bit, warmed Finn up enough that he stopped worrying about freezing to death and could instead focus on the myriad of injuries that had all woken up after his movements. He settled inside the tunnel, sliding his back down against the wall where there was space between the crystals. Finn looked at the glowing spectacle and couldn't help but admit that it was gorgeous, even if the end result had nearly killed him. He settled back in to wait for his rescue, and to think about what he could say to Fionna after all this was over. He knew they'd gone into the dungeon together, but it was her who was going to bring him out again. And that was important to him, and he wanted her to know that too.

* * *

Jake had resigned himself to a quiet night of being bored with his nose in a book. He knew it was for a good cause, and he felt bad that Fionna was stuck here, but that didn't make it any easier to read all this nonsense. He cast a glance over to Bubblegum, who was busily writing notes and circling things and generally being productive, and then he turned to BMO who was still scanning pages happily and occasionally bring things over to Bubblegum. The pair seemed to be working efficiently, leaving Jake to wonder why he'd agreed to spend the night here after all. He thought of Finn and Fionna having an adventure and felt a little jealous, between his kids and Flame Princess being around it had been a while since he and Finn had gone adventuring full time. His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door, and Bubblegum rose to answer it, revealing Peppermint Butler.

"Hello Princess, I just thought I'd warn you that a few citizens have reported that they saw the Ice King flying here, and that you should have some protection for when he inevitably tries to kidnap you." he said plainly.

Bubblegum sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose and nodding her understanding.

"I don't have time for this, and of course Finn is away right now," she muttered, "Jake, think you can take care of him if he's up to anything?"

Jake jumped onto his chair, stretching his body into a giant slab of muscles and flexing dramatically.

"Of course PB, ain't no way no Ice King's gonna getcha while I'm here!"

BMO clapped a little at Jake's display, giggling to itself before returning to work. Bubblegum smiled and nodded appreciatively before turning back to Peppermint Butler.

"Thank you Peppermint Butler, you may go now. Tell anyone else who comes to you about this that it's being taken care of."

The candy nodded and bowed, before closing the door and leaving the room in silence again. Bubblegum returned to her seat and resumed her reading, and Jake remained standing on his chair, curious about the Ice King's appearance.

"Hey Peebles, I'm going to go outside and find Ice King. Save us the trouble of him breaking in here."

Bubblegum gave a grunt of acknowledgement but stayed otherwise busy with her work. Jake got down and left the room, feeling thankful that he'd have something to do for a little while. He had no idea how science-y types could live being that bored. He followed a spiralling staircase up to one of the ramparts of Bubblegum's castle, looking out over the Candy Kingdom. He scanned the skyline, doubtful he'd spot much in the dark, but eager to be DOING something again. After a few seconds of staring out over the horizon, he decided to just wait it out, as it wouldn't take the Ice King too long to fly there anyways. His patience (or laziness) was rewarded not even two minutes later when he caught glimpse of Ice King making his shaky way through the air. Jake couldn't help but notice that his flight was erratic, and he wobbled through the air like he was about to fall. Jake stretched his legs around two merlons at his side and snaked his body out to meet the Ice King in the air. He could hear the Ice King talking to somebody, but couldn't make out who it was as he approached.

"I swear this never happens, it's just been a long time since I've done it with someone else." Ice King was stammering. Jake could clearly see that he was having serious trouble flapping his beard enough to stay afloat.

"Hey Ice King, what are you doing here?" Jake called out to him, "Everyone's busy right now so come back later if you want to cause trouble."

"Jake?" came a feminine voice, one that took Jake a moment to remember and place.

"Fionna? What are you doing with Ice King?" he asked, confused.

"I'll explain on the way back, Finn's in trouble and I need your help!"

Jake heard her words and immediately unwrapped his legs from the castle, stretching his front paws out to touch the ground and keep him from falling while he puffed out his body. He reached an arm forward and scooped Fionna off of Ice King's back and depositing her on his own. He wrapped his head around backwards to look at her.

"What happened to him? Where is he?" he asked frantically.

"He's in a dungeon just inside the Ice Kingdom, go now and I'll show you where!" Fionna replied, equally frenzied, "And Ice King, you remember MY condition right?"

The Ice King sighed and nodded, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah yeah, no stealing any princesses tonight, I know."

Satisfied, Fionna turned and clung to Jake's back as he took off at a speed he didn't even know he had. She closed her eyes, hoping that she hadn't taken too long and something had happened to Finn.

* * *

**A/N:** So I wanted to try and do some justice to the Ice King, but I also didn't want his antics to go on for too long, hopefully I found a decent happy medium until he comes back later.


	16. Time to Think

**A/N:** A tad late to upload but oh well, I wanted to get this part done and keep going. I'm legitimately curious at this point if people are interested in the thoughts and feelings of people not Finn or Fionna, or if I should keep it focused on them. This chapter is somewhat experimental on that front, so let me know if it works, or if it messes with the story flow too much.

* * *

Finn was willing to admit that all of the movement he was forcing himself through was a terrible idea, but fortunately he'd achieved his goal and could take a moment to rest. His arms blazed like fire, and he felt a new set of bruises forming on his right arm and shoulder, but he looked at the decent sized rock he'd managed to bash out of the wall with a smile. He took a minute to catch his breath and let the pain die down some, before scooping it up and hobbling his way over to the other side of the tunnel wall. He'd located a nice set of different coloured crystals growing out of the rocks and wanted to try and recover a few of them. He raised his rock with two hands and brought it down on the first gem, letting gravity do most of the work as it crashed noisily into the crystal. He was satisfied to see a large crack form at the base of the jewel, and with a second blow it snapped off of the stone wall and fell into the dirt with a dull thud. He bent to retrieve it, hissing at the pains coursing through him, and examined his handiwork. It was better than he'd hoped; the crystal was still in good shape, the obnoxiously bright glowing had dimmed considerably, and for some reason removing it from the wall had ceased its incessant humming. Finn nodded happily to himself and placed it in his pack, heaving his rock up to work on the next one. It might not be much, but souvenirs were always nice, and he had a feeling Fionna would really like them.

* * *

Fionna led Jake to the collection of rocks and trees that she'd had the Ice King freeze on their way past so she'd recognize it upon returning. Jake shrunk down, depositing Fionna on the ground and coming to stand beside her. She quickly picked over the rocks and found the opening that led down to Finn and she started dashing down the stairs to check on him.

"Finn? Finn! Jake's here, where are you?" she called down.

"Finn! Finn man, where are you?" Jake yelled beside her.

Fionna felt her heart miss a beat when she got closer to the base and didn't see him anywhere. There was no way he'd managed to climb the stairs, and even if he could what would he have gained? She told herself firmly that he must have gone back into the tunnel, and that something hadn't stolen him away.

Jake matched her stride, recklessly charging down the long staircase to get to his injured buddy. From what Fionna had told him he wasn't in mortal danger, but he was in bad shape, and Jake knew just how stubborn Finn could be about his injuries. If he'd willingly stayed behind and let Fionna go for help, he must be pretty jacked up.

The pair reached the bottom and Fionna continued on, entering the tunnel and sweeping her gaze around. Her eyes rested on Finn, in a heap on the ground with a rock nearby and his pack off to the side. She dropped to his side and pressed her ear to his chest, relieved to both hear his heartbeat and feel his breaths. Jake also checked on his friend, but recognized the curled up way Finn was lying down.

"He's just sleeping, he always curls up like this when he doesn't have a bed." he stated matter-of-factly.

Fionna nodded dumbly and stood again, scooping up his pack and experiencing a moment of surprise when she realized how heavy it was. How did he carry this thing around everywhere? She turned back to see Jake very carefully wrapping his arms around Finn and raising him off the ground, keeping him in a protective cocoon. She noted the look of relief and sadness in Jake's large eyes, knowing just how worried she would have been if it had been Cake. It also occurred to her that this was probably exactly how Cake was feeling right now, with Fionna having been missing for the entire day with no trace. She couldn't help but feel like she'd somehow betrayed her friends in her own Ooo, feeling so concerned for Finn when she'd only just met him instead of trying to get back to her home like she knew she should. Pushing that particular thought aside for later, she made sure she'd collected all of Finn's things, retrieved her hat from the stairs where he'd left it, and replaced it on her head, slightly wincing at how cold it was.

"Finn's pretty hurt, we should get going." Jake stated behind her, his tone strangely even.

She turned, feeling terrible about everything, and nodded. The pair mounted the stairs, Fionna giving Jake a wide berth to safely ferry Finn up alongside him. They reached the top in short order and Jake stretched himself to a giant again, scooping Fionna up in his tail to place her beside Finn on his back. He started loping back at full speed without a word, eager to get his friend some medical attention. Fionna clung to his back, feeling compelled to say SOMETHING to Jake about what had happened.

"Hey Jake?" she asked hesitantly.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry about Finn, this is all my fault, I shouldn't have suggested this or let him go without you."

Jake's face softened, though he wasn't looking at Fionna for her to see. He knew this wasn't her fault, or Finn's, or anybody else's. This was just something that happened every once in a while when you spend all your time fighting monsters. He was just concerned about Finn, and feeling guilty that he hadn't been there to help his brother when he'd needed it.

"It's ok, really. Finn and I get beat up all the time, I'm sure you do too. I'm just angry that I wasn't there for him, if I'd come along you guys would probably be in much better shape." he said somewhat somberly, "What happened to you two anyways?"

"Oh, we found a big tomb full of skeleton warriors and a big red crystal that brought a huge bone monster to life. Finn kind of got blown up when he killed it." she replied.

"Aww man, Finn said he'd save me any cool stuff!"

Fionna and Jake had a laugh, easing the tension they'd both felt a moment before. They both knew that Finn was going to be ok, and they both recognized that the other was feeling at fault for what had happened. They continued on in silence after that, content that things were going to be ok, and that there would be time to talk later once Finn was taken care of.

* * *

Bubblegum wasn't impressed that Jake had simply left the castle without saying anything, but upon looking at the unconscious Finn she immediately slipped into clinical mode, barking orders to the nearby candy servants to take him to the hospital wing. She made her own way to her phone where she immediately called Doctor Princess, informing her that she was going to have to make a castle call. Jake and Fionna stayed by Finn's side as he was taken by stretcher to a bed, both wanting to help but knowing it was wiser to simply stay out of the way. Bubblegum returned after her call and inspected Finn's injuries, asking Fionna questions now and again concerning the nature of his wounds and how he'd received them. Fionna explained the events of the dungeon, detailing the flaming crystal specifically as it seemed to be what had hurt him the most. Bubblegum nodded as Fionna spoke, making a few notes on a clipboard she'd produced from seemingly thin air.

"And then we walked back to the entrance and I came to get Jake." Fionna finished.

"Hmm alright. Well until Doctor Princess gets here we can't do much for his cuts and bruises, but I can make him a salve for his burns. He needed so much befo-" Bubblegum caught herself, remembering her promise to Jake about keeping knowledge of Finn's breakup under wraps, "-fooooore when he got burned on an adventure." she lamely finished.

"Well I'm sure he needed plenty while he dated a fire elemental too." Fionna pitched in, immediately confused when Jake and Bubblegum both turned and stared at her. "What?" she asked.

"I just didn't think Finn would have mentioned it." Jake replied with a shrug.

Bubblegum turned her back on the pair and looked at Finn, who lay sleeping on the bed silently. She knew it was his own business and really had nothing to do with her, but she couldn't help but feel slightly hurt that Finn had told a girl he'd just met something that personal but hadn't bothered to talk to her about it. She felt silly, getting upset over something so small, but that didn't make it go away. She sighed inwardly, not really surprised that Finn had pulled away in the past year. He'd been busy, getting older, wanting to learn and see more of the world than he had previously, and she knew that he wanted someone to share it all with. They both knew it wasn't going to be her, and he'd seemed to make his peace with that a long time ago. That said, they still didn't see each other often, and almost never without some event being the cause, and Bubblegum knew that it was her fault for that. With the rise of the Lemon kingdom and Finn's relations with Flame Princess stirring the Fire Kingdom back into the political scene, she'd had her hands full trying to keep Candy Kingdom out of various conflicts and issues that had been popping up. She really didn't have time for pranks and parties and games, and that bummed her out more than anyone knew. She remembered a time when her life was easier, more fun, back when she'd first met Marceline and wasn't too busy being Princess to have a good time and not have to worry about everything around her. That time seemed like ancient history to her these days. Bubblegum roused herself from her ruminations and excused herself from the medical wing, telling Jake and Fionna that she was going to whip up some burn salve in her lab and return. It was only after she left that it occurred that she hadn't really made much progress in getting Fionna home today either, which was just another problem that she had to deal with.

A few candy nurses came through the room to check on Finn, and they'd directed Fionna to the bed beside him for some rest of her own. She debated being indignant and staying up until Finn woke, but her tired body had officially run out of steam and she merely nodded and slumped onto the mattress.

Jake looked over the pair and shook his head, leaving the room with the nurses to give the two time to sleep and recuperate. He was glad Finn was going to be okay, and he also appreciated how concerned Fionna was, deciding that she was a worthy stand-in adventuring buddy for Finn when Jake was otherwise busy. He returned to the study where BMO still was and filled the gadget in on Finn and Fionna's conditions. BMO seemed sad that Finn was hurt, but nodded when Jake stressed that he would be fine. Eventually the robot returned to poking through one of the research books it had been reading and Jake had some silence to let himself calm down. He felt a tumult of emotions coursing through him, but he took a deep breath and tried to put everything into perspective. Finn was okay, as was Fionna, they'd beaten the monster, escaped, and outside of some pain and discomfort they were going to be fine. It had been dangerous, but it's not like he and Finn had never had a close call before. Jake knew he was mostly upset that he hadn't been there, but much like Fionna's current predicament with her own Ooo, he couldn't always be beside him when things happened. He settled on feeling acceptance towards the events; they'd been bad but everyone had made it out and dwelling on it would just make things worse. He knew Finn would be annoyed if he let himself feel guilty over it, even though he also knew Finn would feel exactly the same way if their positions were reversed, and he wouldn't want Finn to feel guilty if it HAD been himself who'd gotten hurt instead. Ultimately, it seemed best to just move on. And maybe remind Finn that Jake was the tougher of the two, which seemed only fair. Feeling a little more content with things, Jake grabbed one of the books around him and opened it, reading about three sentences before falling face first into it and snoring.

* * *

**A/N:** I'm in a weird situation where the content of this chapter seemed necessary to write but it wasn't something I wanted to have to deal with, even though I knew i had to. Apologies if it comes across as somewhat rushed, I always get tired of the cliched "Everyone blames each other for stuff that isn't their fault" stick so I figured I could skip it in my own damned story :P


	17. Recovery Period

**A/N: **Don't worry guys, the Ice King's "condition" isn't going to be a dropped plot thread, it's merely one that's going to come up later. In other news I think I'm going to re-work the first few chapters with my current dialogue style, because I think my original dialogue style was very hard to follow by comparison.

* * *

Finn had come to expect the black, starry sky and endless fields when he opened his eyes, once more lying down. His brain registered a difference this time however, as his side no longer felt warm as it had in the previous dreams. He turned his head slowly to where Flame Princess was usually lying and instead saw Fionna's smiling face looking back at him.

"Hey, thanks for taking me out here. It's super beautiful isn't it?" she asked.

Finn once more found himself unable to speak any words, still trying to comprehend the sudden shift his dreams had taken. He shrugged, offering a weak and confused smile, and Fionna looked satisfied, shifting herself closer to him. He felt her hand take his, and felt gentle warmth there that put him entirely at ease instead of terrifying him. He looked back up at the stars and smiled contentedly, feeling like he could just lie there forever.

He furrowed his brow when he realized the warmth in his hand was gone, and when he looked back to Fionna she was nowhere to be found. He stood, turning a circle and scanning the fields for her, but she had simply vanished. He felt a chill run through him, and a sudden loneliness welled up in him unbidden. He sat alone in the field, confused and sad, until the light of the sun broke the horizon in the distance. He looked up to watch it rise, but found instead that the light was coming from a wave a fire that stretched the horizon rising up from the mountains. He scrambled to his feet and swung his gaze around, unable to see anyone or anything around him, and his voice remained stubbornly unable to leave his throat. He turned back helplessly to watch the wall of fire close in on him, and engulf him completely.

* * *

Finn's eyes opened and he gasped loudly, feeling sweat pour down his face and neck and his heart race in his chest. He tried to sit up but found it exceptionally difficult to, and a quick glance downwards revealed to him that he was covered in various bandages and firmly tucked into his bed, unable to move easily. He quickly looked around and saw that he was in the medical wing of Bubblegum's castle, and the moment of panic that had been working itself up over his current state died down at the realization. Fionna and Jake had gotten him back after all. He closed his eyes a moment, letting his heart slow down and focusing on how he was feeling. He was sore, and already knew the degree of stiffness that had sunk into his bones would make moving around a pain for the next day or two. His head felt fuzzy, but his splitting headache had faded, and the burns on his skin didn't ache, a sure sign that Bubblegum had treated him. His hand felt warm though, comfortably so, and when he turned to his side and looked down he saw his hand was clasped tightly with another slightly smaller one. Fionna sat in a chair by his side, her body bent over and her head resting on his bed, where she was quietly dozing. He looked at her face while she slept, realizing that this was the second time he'd woken up next to her, and felt a familiar fluttering in his stomach and a subtle blush hit his cheeks. He turned his head to the other side and saw Doctor Princess and Bubblegum having a conversation, and he debated trying to stand up and join them. A quick attempt to move any of his limbs met with a large amount of resistance from his stiff and sore joints, and he opted against moving. Besides, if he got up he'd have to let go of Fionna's hand, and he was relishing the feeling of warmness, one that didn't come with a burn. He closed his eyes and sighed somewhat contentedly, strangely enjoying his aches and pains having known he'd earned them triumphing over evil.

Fionna's eyes fluttered open as she woke from her nap. She lifted her head slightly, wincing at the stiffness in her neck from the angle her head was lying on. She thought to bring her hand up to rub her neck but she froze when she saw she'd slept with her hand in Finn's. Fionna immediately felt her cheeks flare with embarrassment as she thought of how many people might have seen it, and did a quick look around to see if anyone was watching her right now. She brought her other hand to her face surreptitiously to make sure she hadn't drooled while she'd slept, and content at finding nothing, rubbed some of the ache from her neck and shoulders. She went over the events of the previous night after they'd gotten Finn back to Candy Kingdom, remembering lying down for a nap and then watching over Finn after Doctor Princess had finished administering medical attention. She had no idea when she'd fallen asleep again, but she remembered Bubblegum standing over the pair of them at some point before the sun had come up. She looked past Finn to Bubblegum, engaged in conversation with the Doctor on the other end of the hall, and couldn't help but wonder if she and Finn had as complicated a relationship as Fionna had with Gumball. There had been questions brewing in the back of her mind about Finn's life since he'd mentioned Flame Princess, but she knew that it really wasn't her business unless he made it so. She looked back at the sleeping boy, gently running her free hand over the healthy parts of his face, careful to avoid his bandages. He looked peaceful, and she was glad that he'd finally had some time to recover.

And then she nearly jumped out of her skin when he opened his eyes and stared at her.

"Uhm, morning?" he awkwardly greeted.

"Oh my Glob, sorry, sorry, sorry..." she stammered, jumping out of her chair and turning around, fidgeting and feeling about ready to crawl in a hole and die. Why did she have such rotten luck when it came to Finn waking up? At least she hadn't punched him in the face this time she told herself.

Finn watched her freak out a little and felt bad, he hadn't meant to startle her, he'd just felt her hand and naturally opened his eyes to see what was touching him. He fought with his stiffness to raise himself up a little, subconsciously taking in a view of her revealingly ripped up skirt that gave him a little surge through his body. It also occurred to him that he wasn't wearing a shirt, though a shake of his legs told him he had his shorts on.

"It's fine Fionna, I'm glad you're okay. What happened while I was out? Where's Jake?"

She turned to him, momentarily distracted by the sight of the muscles in his broad shoulders and chest, before actually registering his words. She sat back down in the chair, eager to move past how creepy she'd felt when he saw her touching him.

"I went to the Ice King and got him to take me to the Candy Kingdom, and when I came back with Jake you were already unconscious. We brought you back and Bubblegum and the Doctor patched you up. You really haven't missed that much. Jake's still reading some books with BMO, he asked someone to come get him when you wake up." she explained.

"Oh, ok good." Finn stated, "Wait, how'd you get the Ice King to help you?"

"I, umm, threatened him a bit." she lied. Finn didn't need to know about her agreement with the Ice King, at least not right now.

"Huh, well whatever works. Nice to see him doing some good for a change, willing or not." Finn said happily, pushing himself up a little higher, "How are you? Did the doctor see to you too?"

Fionna reach out her hand and placed it lightly on his, looking at him seriously but unable to contain a small smile.

"Seriously? I'm fine dude, you're the one who got rocked. How are you feeling?"

Finn gingerly lifted his arms and flexed, wincing at the pain but glad that it was far easier to cope with now than it had been the night before.

"Ehn, I'll be fine. I've been burned before, and I don't think I broke anything. Should be good to go by lunch!"

Ok, so that was fairly not true, Finn was in a lot of pain and didn't relish the thought of leaving that bed for at least another day, but he wasn't about to let that on. His memory from the night before was hazy in places post-crystal explosion, but the images that were clearly etched into his mind were all of the looks of concern that Fionna had given him every time she'd looked at him. If nothing else he knew that he didn't want to be the cause of that look again, he already felt pretty bad about putting himself on her so completely when they tried to escape. He realized her really needed to thank her for that, but she cut him off just when he opened his mouth.

"That's great, I'm glad!" she said with a smile, "Looks like Bubblegum and Doctor Princess really know what they're doing."

Her face darkened shortly after speaking, as if something had just occurred to her, and Finn watched her move over to her bed and fish something out of her pack. She returned with it in her arms, presenting it to him with a sad look on her face. Finn looked at the remains of his family sword; though the hilt and pommel were untouched, the blade was all but gone with nothing but an inch of warped metal left. He stared at it for a moment, reaching his arms out and taking it from Fionna, who returned to her seat.

"I'm so sorry Finn. The golem knocked mine away so I only had yours when I stabbed the crystal, and it melted before the crystal exploded."

Finn held the hilt in his hands, staring at the destroyed blade, but couldn't feel too badly about it. Though it had been a final gift from his father, he felt content that it had experienced a fitting end, so he put it on the table at his side and returned his gaze to Fionna.

"No problem. I can't argue with the use I've gotten out of it, and we just used it to free an enslaved ghost city, destroy an evil object, and save both our lives. As far as family swords go, that was a pretty sweet way to go."

Fionna had to admit he had a point, and since he didn't seem too bothered by the sword's destruction she decided to let it go. She thought of her own sword, and realized that he was right, and she'd probably feel the same way if their positions had been reversed.

"Hey Fionna, can you do me a favour and bring me my bag?" Finn asked politely.

"Oh sure," she replied, "I was meaning to ask, what do you keep in this thing? It's ridiculously heavy!"

She pulled his bag over and placed it gently down beside him, raising her eyebrow at him as he grinned at her. He fished inside of it, looking up at her when he'd found what he'd been looking for.

"Alright, so I grabbed a couple of these, which ones do you like most?"

Finn pulled out two of the several crystals he'd smashed out of the wall and laid them down between his legs on the bed. Fionna's face lit up when she saw them and she immediately bent over to bring her head close to look at them. Finn retrieved the remaining four and spread them out, the collection of crystals casting soft lights over the pair. Fionna smiled at the crystals and then at Finn, touched that he thought to grab a few and was willing to share. It hadn't even occurred to her that she'd forgotten to get herself some, and she couldn't believe he'd gone to such trouble while he was waiting.

"We found you unconscious beside a rock, is this what you were doing?" she asked, "You were so beat up, why did you go to all this trouble?"

"Yeah, I thought it'd be nice to have some, and I figured you'd want a few too." he replied somewhat sheepishly, realizing it was somewhat crazy to do in retrospect given the condition he'd been in. He rubbed his neck awkwardly and held his other palm out towards the collection.

"Well there's six here, which three do you like?" he asked her.

Fionna rolled her eyes and laughed, leaning over the gems and hugging Finn close. He raised his arms to return her embrace, feeling a sense of pride and accomplishment for making her happy.

"You dummy, we can figure it out later when you aren't in a hospital." she giggled into his ear.

He felt a familiar heat fill his cheeks, and was glad that Fionna couldn't see his face at the moment.

Fionna felt a weird fluttering in her stomach as she held Finn, taken yet again with how considerate he was.

"Fionna," Finn all but whispered, "thanks for saving me."

"You saved me too Finn, so thank you as well." she whispered back, "You're quite the hero."

"Likewise."

Jake watched them from where he stood in the doorway, and decided that catching up with Finn could wait. He seemed fairly "busy". Instead, the dog wandered over to Bubblegum and Doctor Princess, joining their conversation to keep them busy so the two adventurers would have some more time alone before the inevitable checking up on Finn's condition broke their silence. He made a mental note to fist bump Finn before giving him a lecture about not getting himself killed.

The pair stayed linked together for a while, looking down at the myriad of glowing lights between them with smiles on their faces.

* * *

**A/N:** Ah to be 16 and smitten again...


	18. Taking a Day Off

**A/N: **Terribly sorry for my absence this past week, its been a hell of a busy time. And I've spent pretty much all of my down time going through Avatar: The Last Airbender which totally screwed up my writing mojo for Adventure Time. Hopefully I've got that sorted out now and I'll be back to every other day updates. Hopefully... Thanks as always for the plethora of awesome reviews, I'm stoked to get back to this and I hope everyone keeps enjoying reading it!

* * *

Having enjoyed their moment, Fionna put a parting hand on Finn's cheek as she rose to her feet. She crossed the room, approaching Bubblegum, Doctor Princess, and Jake, and informed them that Finn was both awake and seemed fine to talk. The trio immediately rushed over to Finn's side, Doctor Princess and Bubblegum poking and prodding at Finn to ascertain his recovery speed and Jake took a seat beside his friend, patiently waiting for the tests to be finished. Fionna decided to stay out of the way, wandering back towards the group but keeping a healthy distance to allow for Finn's check-up and to give him some time to chat with his friends. Finn however, noticed her missing from his side and craned his neck to find her in the room, waving her over when he found her. She hesitated for a moment, but Finn's smile was rather convincing and she made her way back over just as Finn began explaining what had happened in the dungeon. The pair told the story, trading off appropriately so they both could explain their adventure, and Jake and Bubblegum listened attentively, surprised that such a dangerous lair had existed so close by. Doctor Princess finished recording some notes on a clipboard, but politely waited for the two to finish their story before interjecting.

"Alright Finn, you're going to hurt for a couple of days but there's no real reason to keep you here if you want to go home. Though I recommend having Jake carry you, a long walk isn't the best idea for you right now." she explained to him.

"Alright," he replied easily, "thanks for looking after me Doctor Princess, I appreciate it!"

"Well I can't have you out of commission for too long, who else is going to save me the next time Ice King nabs me?"

The group shared a chuckle, but Jake suddenly looked pensive.

"Hey wait a second, I never asked," he started, turning to Fionna, "why did the Ice King bring you here anyways? How'd you get him to cooperate?"

Fionna felt all eyes turn to her as she quickly tried to think of a good story. She was embarrassed enough about her promise to Ice King, she surely didn't want to tell anyone else about it. She drew a blank in coming up with an excuse, but was rescued by Finn speaking up.

"Even the Ice King isn't crazy enough to mess with Fionna!" he pitched in, chucking her softly on the arm.

Fionna beamed at Finn for giving her an out, even if he didn't know it, and the group had another laugh before they all thanked Doctor Princess as she collected her equipment and departed. Fionna found an opportunity to wander away from Finn as he and Jake fell into a conversation, so she headed towards the window and looked out over the sunny morning. She felt the smile that had been plastered on her face since Finn woke up finally relax, and she sighed contentedly that everything had worked out so far. She had just turned her thoughts to how she was going to get home when she felt a presence by her side. Fionna looked to see Bubblegum had sidled up beside her, placing one of her hands on the window's border and looking wistfully at the horizon.

"Thanks for helping Finn," the pink princess said without looking at her, "he's great at getting himself into trouble."

Fionna cracked a smile and nodded knowingly, it was a trait of his that she was glad they shared.

"Well lucky him then, that I was here to drag his burned butt home." she replied emphatically.

Bubblegum turned to her and smiled, but Fionna could see the weariness in her eyes. It was a look she was used to seeing on Gumball's face of late, as the world seemed to get crazier every day and it fell to him to try and keep some order. Fionna felt a little bad that Bubblegum had spent the past day trying to find her a way home when she likely had more important things to be doing. Fionna tried to think of something to say to Bubblegum about it when the princess spoke up.

"I know this isn't what you want to hear Fionna, but I haven't found you a way back home yet. It doesn't look like that portal has ever been seen before by somebody who wrote it down, but I'll keep looking."

"No, please princess, let me worry about getting home. It's my fault I'm here, not yours, and I'm sure you have a kingdom to run."

"It's nobody's fault Fionna," Bubblegum explained, "and getting you home is important, because your Ooo needs you too. Maybe we'll get lucky and Gumball will figure something out on the other side."

Both women fell silent, lost in their own thoughts as they stared out the window.

Fionna appreciated Bubblegum being both candid and hopeful with her, but she couldn't stop herself from feeling responsible for everything that had happened. She'd have to find a way to make it up to Bubblegum for the inconvenience.

Bubblegum tried to think of what to try next to find or make a portal to get Fionna back to Ooo. She felt a pang of guilt herself, as she knew her intentions were not totally selfless in doing so. If these portals could open, Bubblegum owed it to her subjects to find out how to keep them closed, to protect her Ooo from others. More so, if there was another Bubblegum out there, who was just as intelligent, Bubblegum thought that they'd have a lot to offer one another.

* * *

Jake sat beside Finn, his tail wagging idly as he grilled Finn about what he'd done with Fionna.

"C'mon Finn, you can't fool me, you guys were **awfully** chummy when you both woke up. What actually happened back in that cave?" he implored his friend.

"Nothing man," Finn replied, trying to keep his voice low, "and do you mind? Fionna and Bubblegum are right there!"

Jake bounced impatiently on his seat, pulling at his friend's arm.

"Fiiiiiiiiinn, we're bros, you can't leave me out of this!"

"I'm serious, we just hugged. We were a little busy trying to not die!"

Jake sat back, acknowledging Finn's point, but it didn't stop him from badgering Finn some more.

"Man, I leave you two to have a nice date and you get beaten up? How are you ever going to impress a girl that way?" he asked through a grin.

"Hey I saved her life too! And I blew up that crystal! I was all kinds of heroic." Finn shot back defensively.

"Whoa easy there big man, I was just kidding around."

Jake snaked an arm carefully around Finn's shoulder, sidling up to his face with a sleazy look on his face.

"And you didn't hear it from ol' Jake here, but she was really worried about you buddy. You better make it up to her somehow, she went a long way to get you back here."

Finn nodded and clenched his fist, only slightly wincing at the ache he got in response.

"I will, I just have to think of how..."

"Yeah, and maybe you should wait until you can actually move again. Speaking of, want to go home?"

"Yeah, I'm so done with hospitals."

Jake hopped off his chair and padded over to where Fionna and Bubblegum both stood in silence. He raised an eyebrow, expecting them to at least be talking, but chocked it up to a weird girl thing and tapped Fionna on the shoulder.

"Hey Fionna, I'm going to take Finn back to the Tree Fort. You want to come along or are you going to stay here?"

"Oh I'll come too if that's ok." she replied with enthusiasm. She turned to Bubblegum and bowed her head, "Thanks for everything, I know you probably fix Finn up all the time but still."

Bubblegum waved her hand in a dismissive manner.

"Not to worry, thanks for making sure he didn't croak." she replied.

Fionna helped Finn rise to his feet while Jake scooped the crystals back into Finn's pack. Finn winced and sharply exhaled breath as he forced his joints to move, but Fionna's steady arms holding him encouraged him to fight through the discomfort. Jake looked at his buddy's pain and quickly had an idea, running and leaping out the window before stretching himself to his giant size. He reached an elongated arm in and scooped the pair up, pulling them outside and onto his back before heading towards home.

Finn laid himself flat, Jake's naturally pliant body absorbing the shocks of the road allowing him to relax as they went. He really wanted to talk to Fionna, but he already was feeling exhausted from what little movement and speaking he'd already done so far. He closed his eyes, figuring there would be time to talk once they got back, and promptly fell asleep.

Finn awoke later to find himself tucked neatly into his bed, though still sporting his clothes from earlier. He rose cautiously, rubbing his temples to assuage the mild but insistent pain that nestled between them. Getting his legs under him, he walked first to the window, and saw the sun on its way down, guessing it would be another hour or so before evening set in. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and made his way downstairs, looking for Jake or Fionna. He saw Jake snoring softly on the couch and Fionna nestled into a window-well reading a book. She turned to him when she noticed his movement and smiled brightly.

"Hey you! Feeling any better?"

Finn sat heavily on the couch beside Jake, though the dog didn't even budge, and sighed as the collected soreness in his body died down somewhat.

"Getting there, sorry to sleep all day on you though." he replied quietly.

"Oh please," she said, waving her hand dismissively, "I'm perfectly capable of entertaining myself, and besides Jake is here too."

"Good point. Wait, where's BMO?"

"Uhm, Jake and I realized we left BMO at Bubblegum's castle, along with almost all the books we were going to research..." she said sheepishly.

Finn knew the little robot would be fine so he didn't worry about it, though he did raise an eyebrow at her follow-up about the books.

"Oh, well then how are we going to get you home?" he asked plainly.

"I see it this way: if the way for me to get home lies in a book somewhere, than it's pretty much guaranteed that either Bubblegum or Gumball will find it a whole lot faster than either of us will. So I'm fine letting them do that, I'll just have to make it up to Bubblegum somehow."

Finn nodded, seeing the logic in her statement and deciding that he was alright with it if she was.

"Fair enough. So what's the plan now?"

"Well," she started, "you're going to go rest so you can actually move tomorrow. I'll hang out down here if that's alright, maybe go wandering, or pick out which of those crystals I want. We'll figure tomorrow out tomorrow."

"Ok, sorry though. I'll try to heal faster." he said.

"Let me know how that works out." she said back laughing, "Need any help getting back upstairs?"

Finn briefly considered taking her up, if only to get close to her again, but ultimately decided that his ego was more valuable at the moment.

"I'm not that jacked up, but thanks anyways."

Fionna nodded and watched him hobble his way back to the ladder and drag himself up it, shaking her head when his back was turned. She knew that stubbornness all too well, but seeing it from the outside made her realize how comically silly she'd let herself look over the years. She filed that little piece of knowledge away for later and checked the sun outside. In another hour or so she knew that she should start getting ready to go. She still owed the Ice King for helping her, and if both of the guys were going to be asleep than she wouldn't even need a cover story for why she was going out. She just hoped it wouldn't be too long until she could get back again.


	19. Fulfilling a Promise

Fionna noted that walking to the Ice Kingdom sucked just as much here as it did in her Ooo; not that she really expected it to be any different. She pushed through the snow drifts and cold winds as the sun fell, bringing the already cold temperatures down further. Noting how uncomfortable things were about to get, she picked up her pace a little to reach Ice King's mountain before the cold **really** set in.

She tried to keep herself cautiously optimistic about what she was about to do, and hopefully she wouldn't be kept for too long. While Finn's Ice King was just as crazy as hers, at least he seemed a little friendlier. She hoped that it would be enough to keep the evening from becoming a real mess. As she approached the base of the mountain, she saw a penguin standing in the snow, seemingly awaiting her approach. As she approached it raised a flipper, waving at her, and she stifled a little giggle to see it dressed in a bow tie.

"Hi there little guy." she said. It gave her an unimpressed look.

"WENK!"

"Oh, uhh, girl?"

The penguin nodded, and then turned on its flipper and led her up the mountain along a winding path Fionna could barely see. She admitted that it was nice of the Ice King to send her an escort, maybe he wasn't such a bad guy after all...

She immediately rethought that when she reached Ice King's mountain, and the penguin presented her with a box. She opened it curiously, finding a stunning blue dress inside that sparkled like ice. She gasped, pulling it out to examine it, but her face promptly fell when she saw that in full, it barely covered her from chest to hips.

"He really expects me to wear this?" she asked the penguin dryly.

"Wenk."

"Yeah, not happening."

Fionna dropped the "dress" back into the box and returned it to the penguin, who took it and waddled away without another sound. She shook her head, reminding herself of the level of crazy she was dealing with and to not let her guard down, and more importantly to not encourage Ice King's antics. A distant part of her mind felt vindicated in bringing her sword along, she wasn't about to let him get ahead of himself with the "favour" she owed.

The penguin returned, bowing as it wrapped a flipper around the door leading inside and opening it dramatically. Fionna walked in, not terribly surprised to see Ice King's chambers in the same kind of disarray that the Ice Queen's were back home. Empty cans and boxes were strewn about, as well as a few different loose socks and spare robes. His cage sat at the back of the room, empty as per her demands, and she noticed that there was a clear pathway through the junk leading to a side chamber. She steeled herself, and walked over the path, poking her head into the adjoining room.

* * *

Finn woke from his nap to the sound of a soft but insistent knocking on the door downstairs. He rubbed his eyes, stretching and feeling the familiar ache awaken in his body as he slowly dragged himself to his feet. He blearily looked out his window to see darkness beginning to crawl over the horizon, signalling that dusk had just passed. He climbed clumsily down the ladder, wondering why Jake hadn't gotten the door, but his question was answered when he saw the large yellow pile on the couch. Jake snored contentedly, evidentially transferring his afternoon nap right into bedtime. Finn rolled his eyes and walked towards the door, his subconscious wondering why it seemed bright as he opened it. His body and brain froze when he looked outside, and his eyes met Flame Princess'.

"Oh glob..."

* * *

Fionna cautiously walked into the side chamber, noting that it was at least in much better visual shape. Whatever junk had been distributed here was hidden away, and the relatively open space was being taken up by a fairly ornate looking ice table, and two chairs. She heard the penguin behind her wander off, likely getting the Ice King, so she took a moment to examine the rest of the room. The table was set for a dinner for two, even having a pair of candles softly flickering which cast a rather pleasing light over the icy interior. He had put up deep blue curtains over the window, thankfully blocking out the freezing winds, though Fionna still felt a slight chill at the coldness of the room. She had to give Ice King credit, this wasn't too bad. She couldn't help but wonder if Finn would put something similar together if this had been his idea. She hoped her cover would hold and neither of the guys would wake up, as the dinner scene before her gave a pretty clear implication that she was going to be here longer than she'd thought. She sighed with reservation and stood against the wall, waiting for the Ice King to make his appearance.

"Gunter tells me you weren't fond of the dress," she heard his voice echo from nearby, "I liked the colour myself but I thought it was too modest. I can find you something a little more... liberating... if you'd like."

Ice King finished his thought as he entered the room, waving his arms around the dress she'd refused earlier as bits of the icy fabric melted away. Fionna watched for a moment with an eyebrow cocked as he reshaped it into something more akin to a swimsuit before she slapped her forehead.

"Ice King, you wanted me to come visit you and I did. Don't be weird about this man."

She felt a slight regret at her frankness as she saw him frown, but he seemed to get over it instantly and with a wave of his hands the dress melted away entirely.

"Well can't blame a wizard for trying. Seriously though, I can make you one of those to go, it's pretty *tch* *tch* if you ask me." he said with a hand by his mouth, as if he was telling her a secret.

She rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips, thankful that he seemed to understand her body language enough to carry on.

"Weeeeell in any case, have a seat. Gunter's just putting the finishing touches on dinner and then we can eat!"

Fionna carefully followed Ice King's guiding hand as he pulled out a chair for her, pausing to pull off her pack.

"Thanks." she said simply.

She looked at the icy seat with a momentary frown, before reaching inside her bag and pulled out the torn skirt she'd worn the night before. She placed it down over the seat and then sat on it, mentally patting herself on the back for thinking of it. The Ice King made his way to the other side of the table and took his own seat, smiling dumbly at her through the candlelight. Fionna closed her eyes and took a breath, determined to let patience win out and holding up her end of the deal. After all, Ice King did help her save Finn, the least she could do was tolerate him for an hour or two.

* * *

Finn stood in shock at seeing Flame Princess outside his door, but tried his best to keep an even face on so she wouldn't know. He looked at her, somewhat surprised to see her flames fairly calm by her usual standards, and she looked extremely apprehensive. It was almost a full thirty seconds before either of them really clued in that they hadn't spoken yet and Finn stammered, trying to recover.

"Uhm, good evening Flame Princess. What, uhh, what brings you here?" he awkwardly asked.

She raised her head to look into his eyes and Finn found that for the first time, he had no idea what she was thinking. She seemed annoyed to be there, but also sad, and her nerves seemed to be more from fear than anything, which made no sense to him because she could destroy him in an instant. His mind swam with theories as she sighed and drew herself up.

"I know you probably don't want to see me and believe me I don't really want to be here either butmydad'sgonenutsandtheywanttosetfiretoeverything hereandasmuchasI'mstillangryIcouldn'tletthathappen and-"

"Whoa whoa whoa, slow down FP," Finn interrupted, holding his hands out to try and calm her, "Tell me what happened."

Flame Princess took another breath but sunk a little, seeming a bit more defeated now.

"I need your help Finn."

* * *

Fionna watched as Gunter and several other penguins marched into the chamber single file, each one bearing some form of platter or plate. She vaguely noted that it wouldn't all fit on the table between them, but the Ice King apparently noticed as well and very casually stretched the table out, using his magic to add more ice. The penguins delivered dinner, which seemed to consist of some kind of meat, soup, bread, and a bag of potato chips, as well as surprisingly wide assortment of fruits. Fionna couldn't help but wonder where he'd managed to get it all, as he certainly didn't seem to be keeping fruit trees anywhere nearby. Gunter waddled up to Ice King and bowed, the Ice King inclining his head in return. The penguin then turned its back, but stuck out a flipper behind it towards Ice King and waited.

"D'oh fine."

Ice King grumbled as he reached into his robe and pulled out a coin. He dropped it onto Gunter's flipper, who then waddled out without another sound.

"So hard to find good help these days, gotta treat them right when they come along you know?" he said to Fionna once the penguin had gone.

Fionna inclined her head politely but couldn't get the slightly weirded out look off of her face. Everything seemed so strange, Ice King being so polite, and going to all this effort. She knew she didn't know him but everyone she'd met so far had been fairly similar in personality to her own world's counterpart it was unsettling to see Ice King be so... nice, and only a little crazy compared to Ice Queen.

"Ok Ice King I want to know, how do you know me? You called me by name when you bumped into Finn and I and you seemed awfully interested in getting me here."

She knew she was coming off as a little harsh, but she felt she had a right to be given how weirdly intense he'd been concerning her so far. He didn't seem to mind one way or the other though, as he just seemed pleased she was talking to him.

"Well I made you. At least I think I did. Well I had a dream about you first, then I wrote a story about you and your cat Cake and the adventures you went on. And now you're here in Ooo and we can be together like I wrote about!"

Fionna sat ramrod straight in her chair, blinking at him as he stared at her with a big smile on his face. The silence between them lasted an uncomfortable amount of time for Fionna as neither of them moved or changed expressions.

"That is the creepiest thing I have ever heard." she stated blandly to nobody in particular, still somewhat in shock.

"I still don't know how I did it. I must be a way better wizard than I thought," Ice King continued, seeming to not have heard her, "to think that I got you here just by wanting it enough."

Fionna felt her blood run cold for a moment, but her temper flared and she rose from her seat.

"You **got** me here, like, to this Ooo? **You** dragged me here and trapped me, so I'd never see my friends again?" she demanded hotly.

Ice King recoiled from her fury, but seemed utterly confused rather than guilty.

"What? Dragged you here? No! I promise, anything that happened to get you here wasn't something I tried to do! I mean yeah I wanted you to be here, but I didn't actually do anything!"

Fionna backed down seeing the fear in his eyes, and she took a breath and got her anger under control. The Ice King was a crazy old fool, but in that instant they'd locked eyes she saw no trace of guilt in him, and she was willing to believe him... for now. Ice King took off his crown and bowed down in front of her.

"Please believe me! And don't hate me! I didn't do it! I seriously can't handle you being mad at me, I've waited too long for this to blow it already!" he sobbed at her feet.

"Alright alright, chill out dude. Sorry, I'm just a little desperate to find a way back home."

"But why?" he asked, "If we get married you could just live here! You wouldn't have to worry about friends anymore, you'd have me! And the penguins! Most of them are even house-trained!"

She shot him another glare that silenced him immediately. She tried her best to calm down and focus but her system was riled up after being simultaneously creeped out and infuriated. It was only due to her body being so wired at the moment that she heard a faint voice in the room.

"_His crown is off! Get him!"_


	20. A New Set of Problems

**A/N:** Well I'll be damned, one month and over 10k views later I'm still going on this. I may have slowed my update schedule, but I have some big things planned for the future, so stay tuned. Hope everyone's still liking the story! I'm going to work with an idea that half came from one of the comments and half was something I'd been toying with, hopefully it turns out well!

* * *

"I need your help Finn. My father decided he wants to invade the grasslands and the Candy Kingdom and he used you dumping me as an excuse to rile up the Fire Lords to join him."

Finn stared at Flame Princess, not wanting to believe her but also not being able to deny the sincerity he saw on her face.

"Why would he do that?" he asked, "There's nothing here that he wants."

"He doesn't want the land, he's giving the other lords something to focus on other than killing him and taking the throne." She explained.

Finn supposed that made sense, as he remembered the plot on the King he and Jake had sort of foiled while they were in the Fire Kingdom. He also couldn't douse the suspicion in his mind.

"Ok. If any of that is true then why are you even here? I thought you and your dad were on the same page about this kind of stuff."

Flame Princess turned her gaze downwards, and Finn saw her shaking in attempt to control herself. She very deliberately raised her head to stare him in the eye and Finn couldn't help but shiver at the intensity there.

"Finn, I might have an evil nature but I'm not the same as my father. I tried to explain this to you when you **dumped** me but you wouldn't listen." She pointed a finger at him menacingly, "So listen to me this time: I might not be a good guy but I don't want to be a bad guy either alright?"

Finn saw the mixture of conviction and anger in her eyes and knew better than to speak, he merely nodded as she continued.

"I don't have to be a hero to not want the world burned," her voice lowered as she finished her thought, "...or you killed."

"Alright, so why are you here? Shouldn't you be talking to Bubblegum about this?" he asked, immediately regretting how rude he sounded.

"I'm here because I can't enter the Candy Kingdom you dummy, remember the Gumball Guardians? They'll blast me to pieces before I get anywhere near Bubblegum unless someone can vouch for me."

"Right, and that's where I come in. You need me to get you past them, so you can see the ruler of the nation your father wants to invade." He said, suspicion remaining, "You know the Lich tried this once too."

"FINN! PULL YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR BUTT!" she screamed at him, her flames bursting higher and leaving scorch marks on the tree and ground around her, "Do you honestly think if I was trying to kill her I'd need you? I could destroy that whole castle if I wanted to, and you know it!"

Her flames died down and a sad look overtook her face. Finn tried to stand defiantly in front of her, but he knew she was right. Their breakup aside, Finn knew he could trust Flame Princess as regardless of her alignment. She'd never been anything but honest with him, and he wished he could say he'd been the same but he knew the mistakes of the past he'd made. If she came all the way to his Tree Fort without lighting it on fire, he owed her the benefit of the doubt.

"Why do you have to treat me like I'm somehow a different person?" Flame Princess asked quietly, "I get it, you don't want to date an evil person. Fine, that sucks, and I'll get over it, but I've been evil all along. Why do you have to act like I'm suddenly a bad guy because we aren't dating anymore?"

Finn's shoulders slumped and he leaned on the doorframe, putting a hand to his face where old burns had been.

"You attacking me didn't help you know..." he said somewhat despondently, "And I know you aren't a bad guy, it's just... scary sometimes. You lose control so easily, and everything around you is in danger when you do."

Flame Princess sat quietly on the flagstone outside the fort, and Finn felt compelled to sit beside her. They kept a healthy distance apart, and silence reigned between the two as they mulled over what they each had to say next. Finn looked at Flame Princess out of the corner of his eye and saw her flames had lowered considerably as she sat, hugging her legs and clearly deep in thought. He was a little startled when she abruptly turned to meet his gaze.

"You're right, I know you are. And I'm sorry for hurting you, but you hurt me too and it just seemed fair at the time." She looked out on the horizon, sighing wistfully, "I know I'm guilty in this too. I guess I just never really said what I wanted to before because I got so upset. I can live with us not dating Finn, but if I'm going to turn on my father and the Fire Kingdom, I'm going to need what friends I have. And that means you."

"Ok." Finn said plainly, rising to his feet, "Let's go stop your dad."

Flame Princess stood beside him, feeling somewhat unsure about Finn's apparent change in attitude.

"Really?" she asked hopefully.

"Yeah. I may not always make the right choices, but I'm always willing to help out a friend."

The two shared a quick smile, feeling a little more confident in one another. Finn knew in his gut that this time he was making the right move, because if nothing else, Flame Princess was right. If she really was working for her father then there was no reason for her to come to him, and if she was willing to turn on her own homeland then Finn was willing to consider her an ally. They could figure out their friendship later, but for now there was important stuff to do.

"Just let me tell Fionna what's- Hey wait, where is she?" he asked.

Finn realized that while talking to Flame Princess, he'd completely forgotten that Fionna was also in the house. Except now that he was looking for her, she was nowhere to be found. He raised an eyebrow, tempted to wake Jake and ask but realized that the chances of the dog having woken up since Finn himself had laid down was low, plus he didn't want to have to explain everything to his naturally suspicious brother right now. He quickly checked upstairs, in case he'd somehow missed her, but found nothing. He scooped up his bag and grabbed the hilt of his sword out of reflex, but felt a frown spread on his face when he remembered his blade had been broken. He returned downstairs to the doorway where Flame Princess stood, an unreadable look on her face.

"Fionna huh? That didn't take long..." she said blandly.

Finn blinked a few times and then realized what she'd been implying, waving his hands in front of him defensively.

"What? No no, nothing like that. She's stuck here from another world and she's staying here while we find her a way home."

Flame Princess stared at him for a moment, but Finn couldn't figure out what she was thinking or anything else to say about it. She turned around and started walking away.

"Whatever Finn, let's go."

Finn caught up to her, desperately searching his brain for something to change the subject with.

"So what do you think your dad's plan is? How long do we have before he invades?" he asked.

"Hard to say. Though once we talk to Bubblegum we should probably go get the Ice King. Knowing my father, he'll likely try to take him out before his magic can influence the battle at all."

"Why?" Finn asked, looking confused, "You whooped Ice King's butt last time you guys fought, why does Flame King care about him?"

"Because I'm probably the strongest fire elemental in the whole kingdom Finn. Without me to fight the Ice King, dad's pretty scared of what he can actually do."

"Huh, I guess that makes sense. Hard to think of the Ice King as a dangerous person though."

* * *

Fionna's warrior instincts flew to life when she heard a new voice in the room, and she did a quick and efficient sweep of everything in the room that could be a potential threat. The Ice King remained bent over near her, oblivious to whatever had just spoken. Fionna opened her mouth to warn him, but her eyes caught movement in the flames that sat above the candles. Unable to bring any effective methods to bear, she did the one thing she thought was best at the time. She planted her feet, gripped the underside of the table, and flipped it with all her might.

The table flung upwards into the air, sailing across the room as it overturned, casting its contents all over the place. The two candles both spun away in opposite directions, but Fionna felt a surge of vindication when the flames atop them separated from the candles and flew on their own trajectories. She grabbed her pack and drew forth her sword, reaching a hand down to haul Ice King up by his beard. He took a look around the room, still unaware as to the threat, and looked crestfallen.

"Ok ok I get it, sheesh you didn't have to make such a mess of everything." He complained.

"What?" she replied, "Focus dimwit, we're under attack!"

Ice king looked around again, paying a little more attention, before seeing the two independent flames start to move on the floor. Fionna watched them carefully as they picked themselves back up and then unfurled and grew larger, revealing two flambits. The pair of flames exchanged looks, and then produced small flaming knives seemingly from nowhere as they began approaching Fionna and Ice King.

"We're only here for the wizard little girl, back off and you don't have to get burned." One said menacingly. Fionna was somewhat surprised that it possessed a very low voice.

"Not happening buster," she replied, levelling her sword towards them, "you're gonna have to get through me first."

The two flames seemed to hesitate at her words, as their gazes switched from her to Ice King and back. Ice King took a look at both of his assailants and gave a girly shriek, hiding behind Fionna and waving his fingers at them.

"Ooooh, I'm a scaaaaary wizard! Leave now or I'll freeze you!" he lamely called to them.

"Nice try buddy, but we know you need your crown to do anything," the second flambit retorted, "and your little girlfriend here just knocked it to the other side of the room!"

"You really think she's my girlfriend?" he replied excitedly.

The flambits snickered and Fionna resisted the urge to slap her forehead. Ice King's crown was sitting in the remnants of the soup bowl, glinting softly in the light of the flambits. She took a battle stance and eyed both flambits carefully, sizing them up while waiting for them to make the first move. A tense silence fell over the room as the three combatants readied themselves.

One of the two flambits yelled out a battle cry and leapt at Fionna, who was surprised with their agility. It closed in towards her neck but she picked him out of the air with a flick of her sword, knocking him sideways across the room to land heavily against the wall. The second flambit followed it in, racing across the ground to hack at her legs. Fionna tried to jump back but bumped into Ice King, who sat uselessly behind her cowering. She turned to yell at him to move but felt a pain race up her leg as the flambit drew a scorching line across her shin with its small blade. She yelled out in pain and kicked her leg blindly, launching the flambit away as she turned on the Ice King.

"What's the matter with you? Go get your crown and help me!" she roared.

Ice King visibly flinched at her fury, but hopped into action, running across the room towards his crown. He reached a hand out to scoop it up but the first flambit hopped onto it from the side, swinging his knife at the Ice King's hand. He let out a surprised yelp and wrenched his hand away, narrowly avoiding the burning dagger. He stood in front of the flambit, unsure of how best to proceed.

"C'mon grampa, let's see what you've got!" the little flame taunted, twirling his knife around.

Fionna followed the path of the second flambit's flight, and was on him the moment she reached him. The little fireball jumped and dove around, trying to get away from her, but Fionna had fought small foes before and kept up, hounding at him with her sword as he ran around.

"Why are you after the Ice King?" she called after him, after narrowly missing a swipe.

The flambit was silent now, focusing its energy on avoiding Fionna and finding somewhere to hide to get an advantage. The room was a mess of food and ice furniture, but the assassin couldn't find refuge from Fionna's blade. He made towards the door, and would have exited if another figure hadn't appeared in the doorway. Gunter waddled in, checking for the source of commotion, and Fionna saw the penguin's little eyes go wide when she saw what was happening. Fionna tried to call out a warning of some kind but the flambit was faster, and vaulted over the penguin to land on her shoulder. He raised his flaming knife to her throat and turned a twisted grin on Fionna.

"One more step and the penguin dies."

"Gunter no!" Fionna cried, backing down, "Alright, don't hurt her."

"Wenk wenk!"

Ice King heard Gunter's sounds of struggling and turned his head, seeing his favourite penguin in trouble. He also heard the flambit he was facing off with grunt and turned back to see the small fireball leaping towards his face, dagger leading. In desperation, Ice King swung his hand across his body and his addled brain latched onto something it had forgotten ages ago. A strange noise came from his lips as he blurted out an old incantation.

"NUMB-CHUCKS!" he cried at the end.

A set of ice nun-chucks materialized in Ice King's hand as he swung, flinging outwards to smash the flambit from the air. The small fire mote's momentum carried him past the Ice King, where he collided with the back of one of the ice chairs and fell immobile to the ground. The Ice King then flung his ice-chuck towards the bowl, hitting the rim and causing the bowl to flip and throw his crown towards himself. He turned, the crown landing on his head, and pointed a finger at both flambits. His magic flared to life, and he cast a ray of ice at each assassin with perfect accuracy. Both small flames became encased in ice, and the one on Gunter's shoulder fell harmless to the ground with a solid *clunk*. Fionna turned to look at Ice King, both surprised and impressed at his sudden display of skill. He stood coldly in the middle of the room with a smug grin on his face.

"**Nobody** messes with my Gunter."


	21. Contested Loyalties

**A/N:** First off I'd like to apologize for vanishing there. I moved cities, started fall courses, and generally just became exceedingly busy these past two weeks. But never fear! I'm still here and still writing, just slowly right now :P Thanks to everyone who's been reading so far and those of you who have left reviews and comments, I love hearing feedback! Here's to hopefully getting more of this written in the following week!

* * *

Fionna finished inspecting Gunter for damage before giving the penguin a pat on the back, sending her on her way. Fionna then rose and turned, seeing the Ice King had finished freezing the pair of restrained flambits into the icy walls of his castle. She nodded approvingly, before stalking up to them with a serious face on.

"Alright punks, what was this all about? Why were you trying to whack the Ice King?"

Ice King whirled his head at her, eyes bugging out of his skull.

"Wha- wait! They were trying to kill me? Well that's just plain rude! I **NEVER** try to kill Flame King! Even though he **IS** a big doo-doo head!"

Fionna stared blankly while the Ice King babbled away, shaking her head slightly and turning back to the flambits. She levelled her sword at one of them, who visibly cowered. Fionna fought to keep the grin off her face, knowing she might be able to bully it into telling her. "Tell me what I want to know and this doesn't have to get ugly." she stated as menacingly as she could.

The flambit turned its head, meeting the gaze of the second one, which merely shook its own head in response. The first one visibly welled up its courage and turned back to Fionna.

"Not happening toots. I ain't scared of anything you can do to me."

Fionna thought quickly, hoping that the similar personalities of the people she'd met to her own versions weren't just coincidence thus far. She gave the little flambit a smirk and leaned in, half whispering in reply.

"Maybe you don't fear me, but I'd hate to have to let the penguins get at you. Gunter's not the forgiving type."

Unbeknownst to Fionna, the flambit had looked past her during her threat and saw the very penguin she'd been talking about. Gunter stood shaded in the doorway, fixing the pair of flambits with murderous eyes. It saw a thin red line along Gunter's neck, where the other flambit's dagger had scorched her. The penguin calmly brought its flipper up, and drew it across her throat, along the line of the scorch mark.

Fionna watched satisfied as the flambit broke down, struggling to free itself while it begged for mercy. The second flambit just narrowed its gaze at Fionna. "Oh glob, I'm sorry! It was our job! Flame King wants Ice King gone so he can invade so he sent us to do it and my partner panicked and threatened the bird, don't let her have us!" the first one wailed.

"Alright alright, calm down." Fionna replied, "If you co-operate you'll be fine. Where is the Flame King invading?"

"He said that if Prince Finn was going to treat his daughter like dirt then he'll show Finn' s kingdom the same kindness! He wants to burn down the Grasslands and the Candy Kingdom!"

Fionna immediately turned to the Ice King, who was listening to the exchange but had remained unusually silent.

"Ice King, I know I was kind of in the middle of repaying the last one, but I need another favour..."

"It's fine." he replied simply, "Truth be told I'm surprised you even showed up. Plus you saved my life, so you know, that counts for something."

"Thanks. It's probably best you don't stay here alone anyways, who knows what Flame King will try next if he realizes these two failed."

The Ice King turned thoughtfully towards the pair of flambits. "So what should we do with these two anyways?" he enquired.

"We should take the co-operative one with us, we'll need him to back up our story." Fionna stated, "I guess the other one is up to you. Want to bring him along?"

"Nah, I've got a better idea."

* * *

Fionna sat on Ice King piggy-back style while clutching the ice cube containing their new informant. The Ice King muttered to himself about being too old for this kind of thing before screwing his body up and launching himself into the air with a mighty flap of his beard. The unusual trio sailed through the evening sky, once more headed towards the Candy Kingdom. As they departed, Fionna heard a small voice over her shoulder yelling from the mountain.

"When I get out of here I'm going to make you both pay! And don't think I won't tell Flame King what a coward you are Phillipe! You're all done for!"

The flambit yelled through the bars of its makeshift ice cell as it watched them depart through the window. Hopping down, it tried its best to blast fire into its prison but its small puffs of flame were no match for the sturdy frozen barrier before it. It sat despondently, thinking of all the ways it would have its vengeance, when it jerked its head at a noise. It watched curiously as the door to its cell swung open, revealing a straight shot to the main doors out of the mountain. The flambit cautiously rose, poking its head through the cage door and looking for its mysterious helper. Seeing nothing, it took a deep breath and sprinted for the exit. It made it about halfway across the room before it tripped over an unseen obstacle, tumbling into a heap on the ground. Righting itself, the flambit looked over its shoulder to see what it had stepped on, but stopped dead when a shadow fell over it. It took a moment to look at the shadow, and its flames dimmed in fear and the sight of the rounded silhouette with beak that loomed over it. It slowly turned to face the angry stare of the penguin it had menaced, and her eyes shone coldly.

"Wenk."

* * *

Finn and Flame Princess reached the Candy Kingdom in short order, neither feeling totally comfortable talking extensively to the other. They both felt a bit of relief when they saw the town and castle on the horizon, knowing that soon they would have a distraction from how awkward they both felt in each other's company. They made their way into town, coming to rest around 50 meters from the wall. As Flame Princess had predicted, the Gumball Guardians rose from their posts and lumbered over towards them, eyes shooting red warning beams into the sky.

"Evil presence detected! Evil presence detected!" one boomed out, as two guardians stood defensively in front of the town walls.

"Well, guess we won't have to worry about finding Bubblegum." Finn joked half-heartedly, noting that Flame Princess looked concerned at the Guardians' approach.

"Just make sure they don't vaporize me please, I'd **really** appreciate that." she said back quietly, making no quick movements under the Guardians' gaze. Finn nodded, taking a step forward.

"Gumball Guardians! It is I, Finn the Human, hero to this land! And I bring with me the Princess of the Fire Kingdom, who seeks audience with Princess Bubblegum! Let us pass!"

"No." came the curt reply from one of the Guardians.

"Huh." Finn said, surprised, "I was expecting something a little more dramatic."

"Finn!" Flame Princess hissed at him, "Stop joking around, I don't want to get fried!"

"Relax Flame Princess, they aren't going to come charging out at you. Just stay here. And maybe don't make any sudden movements, you know, just to be safe."

"You'd better be right Finn, or you'd better at least hope their first hit takes me out. If you're wrong about this you are **SO** getting roasted!"

Finn swallowed compulsively and nodded, quickly making his way towards the Gumball Guardians.

"Alright fine, she's going to stay out here, so don't blast her alright?" he called up to them, "I'll go get Bubblegum to come out here so we can all talk."

The Guardians remained silent, but their stances softened somewhat, causing Finn to breathe a quick sigh of relief. Dashing inside the walls, he almost ran right into Bubblegum, who was already making her way out with a small troupe of Banana guards.

"Finn? What's going on? What did the Guardians see out there?" she asked cautiously.

"It's Flame Princess, they can see her evil so they won't let her in. Now hurry, you really need to talk to her!"

Bubblegum remained where she was, unconvinced.

"Sorry Finn, but you want me to walk out of town, away from the Guardians telling me there's an **EVIL** person outside, to go have a chat with your ex girlfriend? No thanks."

"But Princess it's important!" Finn begged, "She says her dad wants to invade the Candy Kingdom and the Grasslands! You have to come talk to her!"

"Finn, listen to yourself! You want me to go out unprotected to talk to the Princess of a Kingdom that wants to invade us? Have you lost your mind? If she's evil than she's clearly up to something!"

"You saw what she did to the Ice Kingdom PB, if she really wanted to hurt somebody, they'd be hurt. She's trying to help us!"

Bubblegum stared at him for a moment, weighing her options while Finn gave her a look that was part pleading and part annoyed. He restrained himself from tapping his foot as she pondered, feeling his frustration rise at her incessant need to over-analyze EVERYTHING. Finally, she gave a curt nod to nobody in particular and seemed to snap back to reality.

"Alright fine, I'll go talk to her. But the Guardians are staying right by my side the whole time."

"Fine, whatever, let's GO!"

Finn and Bubblegum walked out of the safety of the town's walls, Bubblegum waving off her Banana guards as she did, knowing they'd be useless if Flame Princess tried anything anyways. She stopped between the Guardians, cupping her hands over her mouth to amplify her voice.

"Hey Guardians, come on. We're talking to Flame Princess. No blowing her up unless I tell you to or she attacks me ok?"

The Guardians rumbled and began their own slow trot out to Flame Princess, who stood tall in the face of the group coming to meet her. Finn skipped a few steps ahead to get to her first, giving a quick thumbs up through a strained smile before turning aside and letting Bubblegum approach. The two princesses stared at each other for a moment, neither one really knowing how to initiate their conversation.

Flame Princess' patience ran out first, and she rolled her eyes and huffed. "Alright, well this is awkward and it doesn't have to be. I'm not up to anything, I'm here to warn you about my dad."

"I know, Finn told me he plans to invade. Why? And why are you here?" Bubblegum asked evenly, suspicion plain on her face.

"Because I don't want everyone here to get burnt to a crisp?" FP responded somewhat indignantly, "I'm nothing like my father, 'alignment' aside."

"Fine. Let's pretend that he is actually going to invade," Bubblegum said, "Where will he hit first and when does he plan to do it?"

Flame Princess looked down at the ground, clenching her small fists slightly. "I don't actually know..." she started to reply, "He just asked me if I was going to help him and I said no and left. I didn't want to stick around to get thrown in a latern. Again."

Finn winced as he heard the venom in Flame Princess' tone at the last word, knowing that things were still tense between the two princesses. He silently hoped that this would all go as planned, he didn't relish the thought of having to keep these two from destroying one another.

"So you came all this way to give me an unverified statement that I'm going to be invaded 'soon' from 'somewhere'. Great. Thanks for the help." Bubblegum said acidly.

"Hey don't brush me off Bubblegum!" Flame Princess spat back, "I came a long way to tell you this, why would I even be here if it wasn't true?"

"Who knows what you're planning! Grod knows evil beings have tricked Finn into doing stupider things before!"

"Hey!" Finn interjected, "Lay off PB! I trust Flame Princess, and you should too! She's right, why would she bother with all this if it was a lie?"

All three parties faced off, the tension in the air mounting by the second as Flame Princess and Bubblegum stared holes into each other's heads. Finn switched between frustration at how silly this all was and genuine concern that everything was about to go terribly wrong. He had no sooner wondered what else could happen when he heard a familiar voice behind him.

"Hey hey everybody! Having another get together? Glad I got here in time!" crowed Ice King as he swooped in towards the group.

Finn turned to throw him a moldy stare when he saw Fionna on Ice King's back, and his brain chugged to a halt trying to figure out why she would be there. He reflexively reached for his sword, thinking maybe he'd captured her, but he felt his mind do another roll when his fist clasped empty air. Shaking his head to sort himself out, he looked again and saw Fionna dismounting from the Ice King's back, holding a small ice ball and walking over to him while rolling her eyes and yelling over her shoulder.

"C'mon Ice King, focus! We're here because you almost died remember?"

Finn's tongue tried to ask about four questions at once, leading to him vocalizing a strange strangling sound before forcibly closing his mouth. Fionna looked at his eyes as she saw him struggling to figure out the scene in front of him, and she couldn't hold back a giggle at his confusion. The somewhat musical sound hit Finn's ears and calmed him, and he settled for giving her a dopey smile as she came up next to him. She felt a little surge of happiness at seeing it, and smiled back.

Bubblegum looked at the group in front of her with a cocked eyebrow, waiting patiently for an explanation. Flame Princess also seemed to be at a loss, but she was focused on the very Finn-like girl who had suddenly appeared. The Ice King remained behind, doubled over and panting after his exertion. A brief silence fell over the area until Fionna switched back to the task at hand and presented Bubblegum with the ice ball in her hands. The flambit encased inside looked at the princess warily, but remained quiet.

"Princess Bubblegum, I just caught this flambit and an accomplice trying to assassinate the Ice King earlier this evening. It seemed smart to bring it here, since its decided it has something to tell you." Fionna stated.

All eyes fell to the flambit, which shrunk a little under the combined gazes. It seemed to be particularly afraid of Flame Princess, who blazed a little brighter in front of it to intimidate it further. "Skirt's right. We were sent by Flame King to take out the Ice King so he can't stop the Fire Kingdom from taking over."

Flame Princess turned a vindicated look to Bubblegum, who turned her gaze away and sighed heavily. "Alright everyone," she announced to the group, "We're going inside to figure all of this out."


	22. Important Questions

The group made their way into Bubblegum's castle in tense silence, save for the Ice King, who continuously babbled on about whatever random thoughts entered his head along the way. Nobody felt particularly guilty about ignoring him. The procession reached the castle gates, where Bubblegum made a quick gesture to the guards and the doors were opened wide by the banana guards outside. She turned on her heel before entering, looking over the assorted people before her.

"Ok everyone, this is an important matter between kingdoms, so for now this conversation is going to be held between representatives of the nations involved. Finn, Fionna, I'll have to ask you both to wait here until we decide on a course of action."

Finn frowned, slightly discouraged. As much as he disliked "royal meetings" and how boring they were, it was seldom that he was excluded from on if he was already at the castle. He turned a glance over to Fionna, who merely shrugged at him. He turned back to Bubblegum.

"Alright fine, but since the Grasslands are in danger too I want to know what the plan is as soon as you all figure one out!" he demanded.

Bubblegum waved a hand dismissively towards him, "Yes, yes, relax Finn. Of course we're going to tell you once we have one." She turned to Flame Princess and Ice King, who were standing somewhat uncomfortably next to one another, "Alright you two, let's go."

"Wait, me?" Ice King said surprised, "You want me to come too?"

Princess Bubblegum gave an annoyed sigh, "Yes dummy, you're the ruler of the Ice Kingdom, and clearly you're going to be involved with this one way or another. So enough time wasting, let's go. And bring your little prisoner too."

Bubblegum turned on her heel and walked off, flanked by a quartet of banana guards. Flame Princess looked at Finn, who gave her a weak smile and a shrug. She turned, feeling unsure about Bubblegum's sudden change of heart about all this, and followed the pink ruler. The Ice King walked up to Fionna and retrieved the frozen flambit from her before tailing the two princesses further into the castle.

Left alone, Finn and Fionna exchanged nervous chuckles while standing awkwardly in the castle foyer. Finn looked out the open doorway to the peaceful evening outside and suddenly felt cooped up.

"Hey Fionna, might be a long time until they're done in there. Want to go for a walk?"

"Sure!" she replied quickly, "I'd just as soon not sit around here. Whether they're Gumball's or Bubblegum's the banana guards always give me the creeps."

Finn had to agree with her, as he surreptitiously looked around the foyer and saw a handful of them pretending to look busy but obviously keeping an eye on the pair. Finn shook his head and walked towards the door, turning 90 degrees when he reached it an offering Fionna a small bow as he gestured her to leave first. He was rewarded with a little smile from her as she exited, and he felt his heart flutter a little as he followed her out.

* * *

Princess Bubblegum, Flame Princess, and the Ice King all entered a large room with a circular table set in the middle, surrounded by seats. Bubblegum cooly moved to the largest chair, which was somewhat royally adorned, and sat down, motioning with her hand for the other two to similarly seat themselves. Ice King wandered over to one and plopped down, leaning back to put his feet up on the table. One deathly stare from Bubblegum changed his mind however, and he took up a more formal posture. Flame Princess looked dryly at the wooden seats and simply chose to nudge on aside with her foot and stand where it had been.

Bubblegum seemed satisfied, and waved her banana guards out of the room before addressing the others. "Alright, I hereby call this emergency war council to order. We're here today to-"

"We all know why we're here Bubblegum, let's cut the formality!" Flame Princess cut in, clearly annoyed.

"Alright fine." Bubblegum snapped back, before turning her attention to the other person in the room. "Ice King, bring forth your prisoner, I have questions."

The Ice King reached into his beard and produced the small ice cube containing the would-be assassin, who was currently spitting hair out his mouth. After placing him on the table, Ice King looked into his beard and hooted a little, seeing that the flambit had left a small burned patch of hair inside of the beard. He quickly iced over the inside of his beard before he returned to sitting comfortably. Bubblegum and Flame Princess exchanged looks, but both chose to remain silent about it.

Bubblegum leaned out of her seat, looming over the flambit as her tone took a steep turn towards something more nefarious than Flame Princess was expecting to hear. "Now, you're going to tell me everything you know about the Flame King's plan..."

* * *

Finn and Fionna had wandered away from the castle proper but remained on the grounds, strolling casually through the grassy exterior. They were both in comfortable silence, enjoying each other's company and the crisp coolness of the evening. Finn in particular was in a good mood, having this as a direct contrast to how strained the walk here with Flame Princess had been. It was nice to have something like a walk be simple again. Finn's light-hearted mood was immediately interrupted by a thought he had put aside not too long ago.

"Uhm, if you don't mind my asking," he said with hesitation, "why were you with the Ice King earlier?"

Fionna gave a little reserved sigh, hoping that Finn might have let that go in the wake of the events that followed her impromptu arrival. She didn't feel ashamed over having to trade dinner with the Ice King for saving Finn, but that didn't mean it wasn't embarrassing as hell.

"Well, back when you were hurt, I needed him to get me to Candy Kingdom to get Jake faster..." she started, "And I know I told you I bullied him into it, but I didn't want to waste the time or risk driving him off or anything, so I tried to be nice. And he told me he'd take me if I came and had dinner with him, so I agreed. Sorry about lying, it was just embarrassing, but I didn't feel like I could break my promise."

Finn mulled over her words for a second before replying in a very small voice. "You're telling me you willingly had a date with Ice King so he'd help you save me?"

"Yeah?"

Finn wrapped Fionna up in his arms, giving her a fierce hug. "That's the nicest thing anybody has ever done for me." he said softly into her ear. She returned his embrace and giggled quietly.

"He didn't make a move on you did he?" Finn asked somewhat aggressively, after they'd separated.

"Eww, no. Honestly he didn't really have a chance to. We got jumped by those flambits before we even started eating. After we caught them I figured the smart thing to do was to let Bubblegum know. And then we found you guys." Fionna eyed Finn closely as she continued, "Speaking of, was that fiery girl Flame Princess?"

"Yeah, she came to tell me what you already found out. She needed my help to get past the Gumball Guardians." Finn explained as the pair continued to walk on.

Fionna scrunched her face up in confusion. "But wait, didn't you say she was evil too? Why is she not on her dad's side in all this?"

"I don't know, maybe she's a different kind of evil?" Finn suggested lamely, before throwing his hands up and turning away. "I have absolutely no idea, one minute she's all crazy and destructive and the next she's all kind and normal again like when I met her." He turned back to Fionna and offered her an apologetic shrug. "Sorry to ramble, it's all just a little fresh."

Fionna nodded and gave him a reassuring smile, "No worries Finn. Better to talk about stuff right? If you don't then you turn into a stuffy robot like Bub- err, Gumball." she finished, trying to recover.

Finn laughed, patting Fionna's shoulder. "No it's ok, Bubblegum is pretty stuffy. I can't imagine living my life for duty and science and stuff, it seems so dull and lifeless."

"I know, Gumball's the same way. He can be a nice guy, but there's something so ordered and creepily intense about him sometimes. It's unsettling, makes me wonder what's going on in his head."

The pair came to a bench within the castle grounds where it seemed relatively peaceful. Finn did a quick scan for lingering banana guards before sitting down, not wanting them to eavesdrop.

"Ugh, I don't think I want to know." Finn replied honestly, "Bubblegum's better off a mystery I think. I'm far happier spending my time with people who I can actually relate to." He ended his words with a gentle smile at Fionna that caused her to blush. She looked away from him for a moment, trying to shake off how smitten she was feeling long enough to mention a thought that she couldn't shake about Finn.

"Do you think that it's weird, you know, how similar we are?" she asked with some hesitation, hoping he didn't take her question the wrong way.

Finn had already considered that earlier, and he still hadn't figured out how to vocalize his thoughts on the matter yet. He took a bit of a steadying breath, giving himself a moment to try and figure things out, before answering.

"A little. I mean, suddenly one day there's a girl here who has a nearly identical life to me in another version of the world I live in. That's weird, and kinda scary to be honest. How many other Ooos are out there anyways?" he trailed off slightly, and he looked at Fionna who had unconsciously looked skyward at his words. He smirked a little, and gave her a moment to look back at him before continuing. "But on the other hand, there's somebody here now who understands me, my desires, my passions. That's really cool. You're really cool Fionna. And even if we are really similar, seems pretty clear we've had different lives, if only in the details, because we don't think and act exactly the same way. And the people we know are similar but different enough that we learned different stuff from them. Maybe that's the important part? Did that make any sense?"

Fionna took a moment of her own to digest his words before giving him a nod. "I think so, I mean I don't really think it's a problem, I guess it just seemed like such a strange coincidence. And I'm super glad we have so much in common, because being stuck here would suck without somebody I knew I could trust." Finn beamed at her in response to her comment, she couldn't hide her own smile before continuing, "And to tell you the truth, I really am glad for a break. I love Cake to death and I miss her, but I know she's going to be ok. And I'm so sick of Gumball making me feel like I can't have fun and Marshal Lee trying to get me to stop playing hero. I love who I am, and it's frustrating when the people around you can't just appreciate it you know?"

Finn nodded in what he hoped was an understanding way, because boy did he know that feeling. He felt guilt well up however as it occurred to him that he'd laid the same expectations of Flame Princess that Gumball and Marshal had on Fionna; to be somebody else because he wanted her to be. She might be "evil" in alignment but he'd been willing to label her entire person because of that simply because he couldn't "change" it. He filed the thought away for later, returning his focus to Fionna.

"I guess I just needed a holiday." she finished with a shrug, "Maybe that's why I decided to go through the portal whereas you didn't."

"Well for what it's worth I'm glad you did. Injuries aside I've had a blast these past two days." Finn told her with a smile, "We'll find you a way home Fionna, it'll just be up to you to decide when to take it."

Fionna closed her eyes and smiled, feeling herself relax in a way she hadn't yet since coming to this Ooo. "Thanks Finn. Think we'll have to head back soon?"

Finn breathed out a small laugh and shook his head. "Not likely," he replied easily, "if I know Bubblegum they'll be busy for ages."

"Good..." came Fionna's quiet reply, as she leaned against his shoulder, "I was just getting comfortable anyways."

* * *

**A/N:** Not entirely sure how I feel about this one, it's kind of the intermittent plot stuff before the story can take off again. Sorry if it seems to drag at all. Thought some fluffy-ness would make it easier to bear :P


	23. Preparations

Finn arbitrarily guessed that an hour had passed when he opened his eyes sleepily and looked around. He and Fionna were still seated on the bench, but Fionna had sunken further towards his chest and he had an arm wrapped around her. He stifled a yawn with his free hand, feeling the remnants of his nap wear off on his mind as a strange unsettled feeling sunk into his spine. He slowly turned his head to look behind him and had to fight to keep from jumping up in alarm when he saw a trio of banana guards staring at the pair. He lightly jostled Fionna with his arm to rouse her before turning his attention to the bananas.

"Uhm, can I help you?" Finn asked, a mixture of curious and annoyed.

"Yes, Bubblegum asked us to come get you at your earliest convenience." One of them replied.

"So you just watched us sleep until we woke up?" Fionna asked sleepily, "That's not creepy at all..."

Finn groaned and rose to his feet, stretching his back and arms. He paused when the guards remained in their place, staring unblinkingly forward. "Yeah guys, message delivered." The boy said with irritation, "I'm not going to get lost, we're still on the grounds."

The bananas exchanged questioning looks, obviously unsure as to whether their job had been carried out yet or not. Finn growled with frustration at them but had trouble maintaining it when he turned to see Fionna holding in a laugh at him. He tried to hold his own chuckle in but failed, shaking his head at her as the pair stretched out the last of their kinks. The two walked past the banana guards and back towards the castle proper, leaving the three to exchange confused looks.

"With those guys in charge of security around here it's no wonder Bubblegum gets into so much trouble." Finn said quietly to Fionna once they'd left the guards behind. She nodded her agreement, but Finn saw her face quickly become pensive.

"Finn, if they're calling us back then the others must have come up with a plan of some kind. What do you think it is?" she asked.

"No idea." He replied honestly, "knowing Bubblegum she'll want proof, maybe send in a spy or something to get the truth. But Flame Princess will want us to fight right now, and ask questions later. Who knows what Ice King wants out of all this, he didn't seem to concerned about it."

"I know what you mean, I stopped him from getting whacked and he still couldn't take things seriously. That crown is scary stuff..." Fionna trailed off, lost in her own thoughts.

Finn continued on in silence, pondering for himself what the next few days might entail. He hoped they'd come up with a plan at any rate, despite how arrogant she could be, Bubblegum had to know that if it came to open war with the Fire Kingdom, there would be no winners. Even if they beat the Flame King, the Grasslands would be burned to a crisp, and probably most of the Candy Kingdom too. Finn involuntarily shuddered at the thought, uncomfortable with the idea that an actual war could occur. He had plenty of experience fighting things, but all the stories he'd heard of what the wars of the old world were like still chilled him. He thought back to the tomb he and Fionna had entered, and how overwhelmed he'd felt fighting the skeletons. The memories made his body ache, reminding him that he still wasn't back in perfect shape yet. He sighed quietly too himself, and made a mental note to stop thinking about his problems for the moment. He was starting to feel a little overwhelmed.

The pair entered the castle's main gates, where two banana guards were waiting to escort them to the meeting room where Bubblegum, Flame Princess, and Ice King were waiting. When they entered the chamber, Finn found himself a little concerned at the tense feeling in the room, as Flame Princess and Princess Bubblegum were both clearly annoyed with one another. Finn and Fionna sat down away from the pair, and Fionna noticed that the Ice King actually seemed to be paying attention. His usual dopey smile was absent, replaced with thoughtfully pursed lips. The pair had barely seated themselves when Bubblegum addressed them.

"Thank you both for coming," she said, her tone mimicking the annoyance on her face, "I'd **like** to be able to tell you that we had a plan, but we're having some... trouble agreeing on a course of action."

Fionna felt her face become warmer as Flame Princess grew hotter, pounding one of her fiery fists onto the table and leaving a scorch mark. "Trouble? The only trouble we're getting here is from YOU!" she spat at Bubblegum, pointing an accusatory finger, "Ice King is all for my idea to bring the fight to them first!"

Bubblegum drew herself up, looking offended and angry. "I told you already, we can't just charge in there without knowing the details, it will guarantee a war!"

"Peebs," Ice King interjected, "I hate to say if but Flame Princess is right. If Flame King invades you guys are toast! At least if we go first then we don't have to worry about the world burning down while we're too busy fighting to stop it."

The three continued arguing in front of Finn and Fionna, both of whom chose to remain outside of the conflict for the moment. Fionna turned to look at Finn. "Well, what do you think we should do?" she asked him.

"I gotta say, I'm with FP and Ice King on this one." The boy admitted, "The Grasslands won't be there anymore if we let the Fire Kingdom make the first move."

Fionna nodded, having come to the same conclusion. "Maybe we don't have to do this the messy way." She suggested, "If the Flame King is pushing all of this, then maybe we can infiltrate the Fire Kingdom and just stop him. Flame Princess can take over and stop the war from ever starting."

Finn's face lit up at the suggestion, seeing the wisdom in it. He gave her a thumbs up and turned his attention to the three bickering royals in the room. He loudly cleared his throat, hoping to get their attention, but it fell upon deaf ears. Not wishing to waste any more time, he instead opted to leap up on the table. "HEY! SHUT YOUR YAPS FOR A SECOND!" he roared, a little surprised at just how loud it came out.

All three of them fell silent, turning surprised faces towards him.

"That's better." He said, returning to his seat, "Now, Fionna had an idea that I think is worth talking about. PB, the others are right. We can't just sit here and wait for some scheme or other to get us proof. If the Fire Kingdom enters the Grasslands, it's all over for us." Flame Princess and Ice King nodded, but Bubblegum's skepticism showed n her face. Finn proceeded regardless, "That said, we can't even bring the whole candy army into the Fire Kingdom anyways, Flambo is the only person we know who can cast flame shield and unless I'm mistaken, he's in there right now." Flame Princess nodded at Finn, reaffirming his thought. "So, what we need to do is send a small group of people in to neutralize the Flame King before the army can go anywhere. We can take him out, put Flame Princess on the throne, and let her stop all of this before it gets out of hand."

There was a long and tense silence in the room as Finn wrapped up, as everyone mulled over the idea. Finn noted the look of appreciation on Flame Princess' face, but also didn't miss the brief pointed stare he'd also received from Bubblegum. He felt a touch at his side, and turned to see Fionna placing her hand on his, giving it a reaffirming squeeze. He let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding and smiled at her, glad for the company in the otherwise stifling setting.

"I'm game." Came Flame Princess' reply, "I know the kingdom inside and out and I think we could get a couple people inside. If my father isn't in charge then I think I can get the other elementals to drop the whole business." FP turned her gaze towards Bubblegum, "And it won't hurt if to have... an ally on the throne to keep trouble to a minimum."

Bubblegum's face became very hard to read, as she furrowed her brow and thought. After a moment, she gave a slow nod of her head. "Alright, but I won't have any candy citizens involved in this. If it goes south, or if this is somehow a big sham, the Candy Kingdom will have nothing to do with it." She ended her statement with a raise of her chin, and even Finn found himself annoyed at her hesitation to help do what seemed right. Flame Princess gave a noticeable groan and rolled her eyes, but nodded nonetheless. All eyes fell to the Ice King, who had remained suspiciously silent up to that point. A long moment passed before he broke the silence.

"You know, all you have to do is ask." He said plainly, causing Finn and Fionna to smirk despite the situation.

"Hey Ice King," Fionna asked, "you coming?"

"Well. I guess I can." He said, drawing it out as much as he could, "But would it kill you guys to give me some recognition for this one? Finn always gets the credit!"

* * *

Preparations for the infiltration began immediately, as it was fairly obvious to everyone who would go. Finn used Bubblegum's phone to call the Fort, rousing Jake and telling him to get any of his adventuring stuff together and to come to PB's castle. Ice King used the phone shortly after to tell Gunter she was in charge for the next day or two until he got back, and to not have any wild parties in his fortress while he was gone. Flame Princess approached Finn and Fionna as they were talking, a look of appreciation on her face.

"Thanks you two. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't come up with this idea. Bubblegum was just refusing to be helpful about this."

Finn nodded sagely, knowing all too well how stubborn she could get about things when she put her mind to it. "No problem, we've got your back on this." He said, turning an eye towards Fionna. She nodded her agreement and gave a thumb up.

"There's still a problem though," Flame Princess continued, "I don't know how to cast flame shield, so we'll have to find a way to keep you two and Jake alive while we're there."

"I can handle that." Ice King said proudly, walking up to them from the phone, "I can make you guys ice pendants that will radiate cold. They won't last too long, probably an hour or two at most, but as long as we stick together I can just whip you up another if you need it."

Flame Princess gave an approving nod to Ice King. "Speaking of cold, can you give these two any ice weapons? Most of us fire elementals are pretty resistant to the normal stuff."

The Ice King scratched at his beard, looking at Fionna's sword curiously. He motioned for her to bring it out and she obliged, handing it over with a healthy measure of skepticism. The Ice King examined the blade and concentrated, holding it in one hand and holding out his empty one. Slowly but surely, an icy replica of Fionna's sword grew out of his free hand, sparkling in well lit chamber. All three watched in amazement as the Ice King worked, and in the span of a minute he'd completed his work. Fionna retrieved her own sword and replaced it, before tentatively reaching out and grasping the ice blade. She winced a little at how cold the handle was, but it was tolerable to touch. She hefted it around a little and was surprised to feel it was weighted nearly identically to her own sword.

"This is amazing." She told him, while continuing to test the balance, "How did you do this?"

"I dunno. Can't say I ever tried. Glad it worked though." Ice king replied, rather proud of his work, "Wasn't too hard actually, it certainly helps to have something to base it off of. Now there are no guarantees about how long this will last, but it should hurt a fire elemental real good. I'll make a new one when we get to the Fire Kingdom."

Fionna nodded, handing the icy blade back to the Ice King, who turned it into icy vapour with a wave of his hand. Finn was having a hard time masking his surprise at the Ice King's suddenly impressive display of mastery over his magic. He had to wonder if maybe the Ice King was starting to put his mind back together, or if maybe the crown was just acting to protect itself. It made the boy a little uncomfortable to think about, especially given the Ice King's checkered past. Finn turned his attention to Bubblegum, who was busy talking to some candy stewards and rattling off a list to them that they were taking down. As he walked over to her the stewards turned on their heels and scurried away to gather whatever she'd asked for.

"Hey Bubblegum." He said with some hesitation, hoping she wasn't angry that he hadn't taken her side earlier.

"Hey Finn, I'm having some of my people get you some potions and ointments I've got lying around. Should help you keep from getting your goose cooked." Bubblegum's reply was a little distant seeming, but Finn appreciated her help nonetheless.

"Thanks princess. And I'm sorry. I know you like to think things through more, but if we don't deal with this now then there might not be a later."

"I know Finn, it's ok. As long as this doesn't drag the Candy Kingdom **into** a war then go ahead." She pulled Finn aside a little and whispered to him, "Just be careful. I know you trust Flame Princess but I don't, this is working out a little too well for her if she just wanted to seize power."

Finn felt his anger flare up at Bubblegum's accusation, but choked it down, knowing he'd thought something similar when Flame Princess had first shown up at his door. He nodded to Bubblegum and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "I know it looks bad, but trust me; Flame Princess is on our side here. Things will be better with her in charge of the Fire Kingdom. As long as she doesn't get mad about anything..." he trailed off, wondering just what kind of ruler Flame Princess would be. He pushed the thought aside for later; he had more important things to worry about.

Fionna finally found an opportunity to speak with Flame Princess, as Ice King had wandered off. She sidled up next to the flaming elemental and tried to think of a way to strike up a conversation. Before she could latch onto anything though, Flame Princess turned to her.

"Finn says you're from another world," she started, "how'd you get here?"

"Oh, I kinda walked through a portal in the desert and found my way here."

"Weird. Why are you stuck then? Did it close on you?"

Fionna nodded, noticing that every time she talked about being stranded here it was bothering her less and less. She couldn't decide if that was a good thing or not.

"Sorry to hear that." Flame Princess told her, genuine sympathy in her voice, "You may not know it, but you're lucky you've got Finn to help you." she finished quietly.

"I've been finding that out. And thanks." Fionna replied, somewhat surprised at how... normal Flame Princess seemed. She'd expected the young fireball to be more, well, evil. At least given that Finn had described her as such. "So what made you turn on your father?" Fionna asked.

Flame Princess seemed to tense up a little, but when she looked at Fionna all she saw was curiosity and not suspicion. The elemental took a calming breath. "There's no reason for what he's doing. He's a big scared jerk and he's just trying to distract his own subjects from turning on him. The people out here can be total jerks too, but they don't deserve to get fried over this."

"Well that's good enough for me." Fionna stated, hefting her sword over her shoulder, "You've got my vote for next Fire Kingdom ruler."

"Thanks," Flame Princess said with a laugh, "always nice to have a vote of confidence."

* * *

Jake arrived scarcely an hour after Finn called, bringing with him a sack of food and assorted junk he liked to have on hand while on an adventure. Finn filled him in on the plan and what they were going to do while the others packed up what equipment they had and the items Bubblegum had provided.

"Now this vial has some of my best burn ointment in it," Bubblegum told Fionna, handing the girl the glass container, "so make sure to only use it on a bad one. The rest of it can handle your typical scorches. This cream will help keep your skin safe from the heat, if the Ice King's amulets don't work out, but don't push it if you don't have to."

Fionna gathered up the collected bottles and deposited them into her and Finn's sacks. She ran over what did what in her head a few times, hoping she'd keep them all straight long enough to get use out of them. "Thanks Bubblegum, I've never fought a fire elemental before so I don't really know what to expect. It's nice to have some options."

"Just be careful. This isn't really your fight, so don't get yourself into too much trouble over this ok?"

"No promises. I'm a hero back home you know, trouble is kind of what we do." Fionna replied with a grin.

"Darn right it is." Finn declared as he and Jake joined the pair, "And it's always good to have another hero around." He snaked an arm around Fionna's shoulder, pulling her in close with a smile. She returned the gesture and smile, yet again glad she could count on Finn the same way she could trust Cake. "You ready to jack up some fire elementals?" he asked her.

"I just hope your busted body can keep up." She quipped back to him.

The heroes shared a laugh, and then finished the preparations for their journey.


	24. The Calm Before

**A/N:** Still alive and still writing! I've been busy as hell with school and life in general, so apologies for making you all wait so long! I think I'll be gearing this particular story up for a finale soon, but I'm sure as hell not done with these two! As always I love getting feedback, and I hope everyone is still enjoying this!

* * *

The group had finished preparing their varied equipment and had uniformly decided to call it a night and head out in the morning. It was well past midnight by the time everyone retired from the meeting and started thinking about beds, all parties opting to remain at the castle out of convenience. Bubblegum seemed somewhat satisfied with Ice King's promise to not cause trouble while he was there, and busied herself preparing a means for Flame Princess to stay in the castle without her causing any undue damage.

"Finn, you've stayed here before so you can show Fionna where the guest room is right?" Bubblegum asked.

"Sure Princess, want me to show Ice King too?"

"No I'll take him," she said, leaning in close and lowering her voice, "I'm going to put him somewhere where I can keep eyes on him. I'm glad he's helping out but he's still the Ice King, you know?"

Finn nodded, understanding her skepticism. As Bubblegum turned her attention to the mad wizard, Flame Princess took the opportunity to gesture Finn aside. He complied, taking a few steps away from the congregation to focus his attention on her. She looked nervous, which was pretty unusual for her.

"Hey Finn, I just wanted to say thanks again for sticking up for me to Bubblegum."

"No problem," Finn replied, "this is too important to ignore by arguing. And I think I owe you an apology myself." he replied, forcing himself to face her even though he felt ashamed, "I did the same thing that Bubblegum did when I realized that evil was a part of your nature. But that's all it is, just a part. And I handled it like an idiot, and I hurt you. I know it doesn't make it better, but I'm sorry."

Flame Princess gave him a long and severe look before a tiny small broke out on her face, and her stance calmed. "Ok. Well, thanks for saying that. I want you to know that I'm trying really hard to not be evil. And I want you to promise me something."

Finn looked at her with curiosity, "Of course, what is it?"

"If I turn out like my father, I want you to do whatever it takes to bring me down. I didn't spend this much time trying to distance myself from him to just become him when I take the throne."

Finn looked into Flame Princess' eyes, trying to gauge her intent as she spoke. He saw nothing but pure conviction in her, and knew that she was serious about what she was saying. He felt a heavy sense of responsibility fall on him at the mere thought of having to dethrone her, or worse, but understood why she was asking this of him. "I will," he told her with as much determination as he could muster, "but seriously, don't give me a reason to even have to think about it. Please."

Flame Princess gave him a smile and a nod, and Finn felt a little more comfortable, albeit now concerned with yet another potential issue in his future. She gave him a parting wave which he returned and she exited the room on the heels of Bubblegum and Ice King. Finn blew out a breath and reminded himself that he had to help Flame Princess get her throne first, and that he should be worrying about tomorrow if anything. At that thought, he turned to Jake and Fionna who were having an amicable chat.

"Once I find a way home we'll have to see if you can meet Cake, Jake. I'm sure both your and her kids would love to meet too!" Fionna told him excitedly, as Jake smiled at her.

"Hey yeah, that's a good idea. Would be nice for them to meet some other part rainicorns I think, though it sounds like Cake's kids are way younger." the dog responded.

"Hey guys," Finn interjected when there was a silent moment, moving over to join them, "Whatcha talking about?"

"Oh just some ideas for what we might do when I get home." Fionna said with a smile, "If we can get a stable way back that we can keep using you two HAVE to come meet Cake!"

"Sounds good to me!" Finn replied with a fist pump, "Would be interesting to experience your world after seeing you get used to this one."

Jake yawned loudly, causing Finn and Fionna to reflexively do the same. There was a peaceful silence as all three felt their tiredness catch up with them.

"You coming to the guest room tonight Jake?" Finn asked his friend.

"Nah man, it's only like, 5 minutes to Lady Rainicorn's from here." Jake replied, conspiratorially pulling Finn aside for a moment to whisper, "Besides, thought you might appreciate some 'alone time' with Fionna." He closed with a wink.

Finn blushed, suddenly feeling very nervous despite feeling so comfortable around Fionna normally. He stammered for a moment to come up with something to say to Jake but failed, narrowing his eyes at him slightly while the dog chuckled at his expense.

"Alright you two, I'll be back in the morning so don't leave without me! Not that you'd get far, but still!"

Finn and Fionna saw Jake off with a wave and wished him a good night, Finn throwing in to say hello to Lady and any of the kids who were around for him. After Jake had left, Finn turned around to Fionna to see her giving him a shy smile.

"So what now?" she asked him quietly.

"Well, uhh, if you're tired I'll show you where the guest room is. I have no idea if it's going to be in the same place as it is in your world."

"Probably a good idea, though I feel all wound up thinking about what we're doing tomorrow."

Finn felt a flash of concern at her words. "Hey, about that, I'm glad that you're coming, but I don't want you to feel like you have to, you know? This could be bad, and I understand if you think you've had enough burns since coming here."

Fionna nodded in understanding at his concern, but put a hand on his shoulder. "No worries Finn, I want to help any way I can. I've never seen the Fire Kingdom in my world though, what's it like?"

"It's a bit like the Nightosphere actually, it's dark, and fiery. It's all rocks and mountains and volcanoes, and even the animals there are on fire. Truth be told it's kinda depressing, though it doesn't help that I'm always getting burned when I go."

"Fair enough," Fionna said with a nod, "doesn't look like you'll get off the hook with the burns tomorrow though."

"Yeah well, occupational hazard." Finn told her matter-of-factly, "You know how it is."

The two shared a laugh before Finn suggested they depart. They both left the room, Fionna following Finn's lead as he took her through the castle. She kept making notes about what was similar and different, namely that while both castles had all the same rooms, the layouts were markedly different. They reached an area that Fionna assumed was the guest chambers, noticing the partitioned off zones inside of the room sporting beds and varied comforts and fixings. A single soft light shone in a lantern in each area, giving the whole room an almost ethereal glow. The two stood somewhat awkwardly, neither of them wanting to part but feeling too self conscious to say anything about it.

"So, uhh... Guess you can pick which one you like?" Finn asked hesitantly, gesturing to the varied sleeping areas.

"Oh, ok. Are any of them better than the others?"

"I don't think so, I've only used these a couple of times and they all seem to same."

"Alright. Well I guess I'll just sleep here." Fionna said, pointing at one of the beds at random.

Finn nodded and wandered over to a different bed nearby. "Cool. Cool. I'll uhh, sleep over here I guess." _What is wrong with you Finn?_ He thought to himself. _Why is this suddenly so weird? _

"Sounds good." She replied quickly, feeling silly. _Come on girl, you've fallen asleep on him at least twice already, why is it now uncomfortable?_

A very noticeable silence filled the room as the two stood a few feet apart, staring at their respective beds but making no motions to get in them.

Fionna closed her eyes and forced herself to calm down, berating herself for being so awkward to Finn. They'd spent plenty of time together that day and he'd be there in the morning, so there was no sense in getting all weird about anything now. She turned her head slightly a looked at him, feeling colour fill her cheeks when she saw him doing the same.

Finn felt at odds with himself over what to do. On the one hand he'd just met Fionna, and he'd only broken up with Flame Princess a few days ago, so he clearly wasn't in the right state of mind for rational thinking. On the other hand though, he couldn't deny that he already really liked Fionna, and he was already missing the electric buzz that shot up his spine whenever they touched. He turned and stole a glance at her, mulling over his feelings, when she also turned and caught him staring at her. He felt the bottom of his stomach drop out, and suddenly a strong compulsion grew in him that he refused to ignore.

"You know these beds look big enough for two..." he said to her, trying and failing to make the statement sounds casual. He turned to look at her more fully, hoping he hadn't just made a terrible mistake.

Fionna took a moment to ensure that he'd actually just spoken and she hadn't imagined it, and suddenly found herself without a response. Her brain stumbled around trying to find one before she gave up on words, deciding like in so many other cases to just let her actions speak for her. She closed the distance between herself and Finn, reaching out her arms around him and pulling him close to her. She felt Finn's arms lift and encircle her waist, a small rush of vindication shooting through her. She turned to look up at him and immediately winced when she felt her bunny ears push up against his face.

Finn coughed out a little laugh as he brushed the ears from his face, smiling down at her as she quickly yanked the hat off of her head. He ran a hand through her long, golden hair, helping her straighten it out a little after being tucked in her hood. He felt her tremble a little under his touch, and knew that she must have noticed him shaking a little as well. The two looked at each other for a long moment before Finn stepped to the side and motioned her past him towards the bed. She slipped past him, still feeling uncomfortable but now it was due to her not knowing what to do next. To Finn's credit the beds were indeed built for two, sporting extra pillows and all. She drew back the covers on one side and crawled in, still feeling very on display as Finn watched her silently. Finn followed her lead once she settled, taking off his own cap and slinking into the other side of the bed. He reached an arm out and tapped the lantern in their zone, causing it to slowly dim until it winked out entirely, leaving them in the dark.

The two lay beside one another quietly for a few moments, each one hoping that their heartbeat wasn't so loud as to be heard by the other.

"Why is this so weird?" Fionna asked out loud on a whim, having had enough of feeling so uncomfortable in her own skin.

Finn laughed nervously beside her. "I wish I knew." He responded honestly. He turned his head to look at her and she did the same, the pair smiling sheepishly at one another. Finn reached his arm towards her and she rolled in towards him, raising her head to let his arm past. They settled together, Fionna's head resting on Finn's chest and his arm curled protectively around her. Finn suddenly felt better, realizing he'd been worrying about nothing and Fionna was as comfortable with him as he was with her. Fionna sighed contentedly into Finn and he felt the tension in her shoulders relax.

"Good night Finn." she mumbled into his shirt.

"Good night Fionna." he calmly replied.


	25. Premonitions

Finn found himself once more in the starry field that his dreams so vividly depicted for him. He immediately looked around to find Fionna, who was at his side once more staring at the sky. He rose before she could speak, feeling apprehensive and watchful for the usual danger that assaulted him in this series of dreams. Flame Princess was nowhere to be found, but Finn kept his guard up regardless. Dream-Fionna rose beside him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Are you alright Finn?" she asked him, concern in her eyes.

He turned to look at her and opened his mouth to speak, but found his words robbed of him once more. Frustrated at his own brain's continued attempts to mess with him he turned away from Fionna and scanned the horizon. He remembered the wall of fire last time, and wanted to be ready for it this time. What he wasn't prepared for was the gasp that came behind him. He whirled and saw Fionna had been encircled by a ring of fire, blazing bright and hot. Finn tried to reach out to her but the flames leapt towards him, driving him back as they shone in the night. Fionna looked scared, unable to move much for fear of plunging into the flaming wall around her. Finn opened his mouth to shout but no sound came, and he beat the ground with a fist and rose. He took a moment to mentally ready himself, and began to sprint at the wall with the intent to leap through. Just before he left the ground, he saw the shape of a fire elemental crest the hill out of the corner of his eye. He whirled in a fury, preparing to charge, before his mind caught up to his body and he remembered it was just a dream. He forced himself to calm down, and stared down the elemental as it approached. He was surprised to see it wasn't Flame Princess, but instead an unrecognizable fiery mass that bore no features.

"You think you're a hero Finn." The fire spoke to him, its voice pompous and condescending, "And your arrogance will be your undoing." The elemental raised its hand towards the boy, but he stared it down defiantly. A vague face peered out through the elemental's fiery visage, and it twisted into a manic grin.

It moved its hand to point at Fionna, who remained immobilized in the fire ring. Finn panicked, and he let loose a noiseless cry as a torrent of fire flew from the elemental's hand at Fionna. Finn heard her scream, and she disappeared in the flames.

* * *

Finn shot awake, a primal cry of rage and sorrow loosing from his lips as he tried to sit up. Sweat poured down his face and neck and ragged breath tore from him as his brain recovered from the dream. He looked to his side to see Fionna, very awake and very concerned, rising to his side and putting her hands on either side of his face.

"Finn? Finn, what's wrong?" she asked frantically.

Finn took a moment to catch his breath and try to calm down before wrapping Fionna up in his arms in a crushing hug. His heart hammered in his chest but he felt reassured from feeling her pressed up against him. He held onto her for a long moment before pushing her back slightly to look at her face, still a mask of fear and concern.

"I'm alright. Sorry, just a bad dream." he said, trying to downplay it, "I'm sorry to wake you Fionna."

"It's fine Finn, but really, are you ok? That was scary..."

Finn nodded at her, trying to force himself to breathe slowly though his entire body was alive with adrenaline. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Ok..." Fionna said with some hesitation.

The pair laid down again, Fionna curling up tighter next to Finn and gripping his shirt in her fist. Finn knew she could feel his pounding heartbeat, and debated sharing the details of his dream with her, but opted against it. He hadn't seen the Cosmic Owl, and he had no reason to believe these were prophetic or sinister. He had just been under a lot of fire related stress lately and he needed a break. He hoped that by the end of the day he'd be free of fire for a long while.

It wasn't too long before Finn felt Fionna's breathing change as she dropped back into sleep, leaving him to sit in the dark, unable to drop off again. He had no idea what time it was, he just assumed Bubblegum would send someone to retrieve the pair when everyone else woke. He closed his eyes, trying to will himself to calm down and sleep but to no avail. He wished Jake was there, because he knew that he could talk to his brother about anything in the world, and despite trusting Fionna with his life, he wasn't sure he could tell her he'd had a dream about her dying. Just thinking about it caused him to shudder, her scream echoing in his mind with perfect clarity. He looked down to watch her, golden hair spilling out all around her as she slept peacefully. He wanted to ask her not to come to the Fire Kingdom, but he couldn't think of a way of doing so without looking paranoid or worse insulting her. He knew it was her choice to come, and he respected that, but the bad feeling gnawing at his gut told him that something terrible was going to happen. He choked it down as best he could, telling himself that she was every bit as capable as he was, and who knew? Maybe if she didn't come it would go worse for everyone else. He certainly liked the thought of another ally at his back, especially given how much they were relying on Flame Princess and Ice King. Finn sighed, rubbing a hand over his tired eyes, and raised his head just enough to drop it on the pillow behind him in frustration. He felt Fionna rustle at his side, and turned his eyes down to see her raise her head. She kept her eyes closed, but one of her hands found his face and she pulled his head down to her and kissed his cheek.

"You worry too much," she dozily mumbled to him, "try and get some sleep or you'll be useless tomorrow."

He felt color fill his cheeks, and couldn't be sure if she was actually awake or he'd just disturbed her enough that she was sleep-pacifying him, but either way he felt a smile stretch his face. Fionna settled back into his embrace, nestling into a comfortable position and leaving Finn with his thoughts once more. He nodded slightly, to nobody in particular, and tried to put all of his concerns out of his mind by focusing on Fionna's radiating warmth. It wasn't long before he too managed to fall asleep, his mind momentarily clear of its malign dreams.

* * *

Fionna woke softly, eyes fluttering open in the dim light of the room. She gazed around as much as she could without moving, seeing the shadows of castle servants pass under the door of the guest chamber, and she guessed that it would be time to rise soon anyhow. She turned to look at Finn, smiling to see him sleeping much more fitfully than he had been before his dream had woken him. She resisted the urge to put a hand on his cheek, not wanting to wake him before she needed to. Instead, she carefully shifted his arm downwards and off of her shoulder so she could rise, making sure to move as carefully as she could so as to not wake him. Once she rose, she stretched her stiffness out and rubbed the sleep from her eyes as consciousness more fully filled her head. She scratched at her scalp sleepily while she rummaged around the bedside to find her bunny cap, pulling it snugly down on her head. She always felt more ready for adventure with her hat on, though if asked she didn't think she'd be able to explain why. She took a parting look at Finn, judging that he was asleep enough that she could dart out and get an idea of the time and when the group would be heading out. She slid the door open as little as possible while still allowing her to scurry out, closing it quietly behind her.

Fionna's memory of this Ooo's Candy Castle was a little shaky, she'd been tired and entirely too focused on Finn the night before to remember exactly where she was, but the layouts were similar enough that she didn't get too terribly lost before finding her way back to the main foyer. She could see the morning sun shining through the windows, though she could tell that dawn had only broken recently. She yawned reflexively when she noticed just how early it was, and she debated going back to the room to get some more sleep while she could. While she debated, her gaze passed over the room until it fell on Bubblegum, who was emerging from one of the many side rooms of the castle. The pink princess noticed Fionna and moved to greet her.

"Good morning Fionna," she said cheerfully, "did you sleep well?"

"Hi there, and yes, thanks."

Bubblegum nodded with a smile at the younger girl, glad she could still play a decent host with everything else going on. "If you'd like, I'm having Peppermint butler set everyone up some breakfast in the meeting room, though it likely won't be ready for another half hour or so."

"Oh, alright. Sounds good." Fionna replied, "On that note, how long until everyone is here and supposed to be going?"

"I have no idea." Bubblegum replied with a shrug, "Knowing Jake it will be whenever he wakes up and decides to get here. That dog is always asleep!" PB said, half laughing but with a tinge of annoyance in her voice.

"Ugh, Cake's the same way. It can be a pain in the butt when I'm waiting on her for something." Fionna shared.

The pair shared a chuckle before Bubblegum cast her gaze off to some unseen corner of the castle. "Well I'll leave you for now Fionna, I need to go make sure Ice King didn't cause any trouble last night. Oh by the way, where's Finn?"

"He's still asleep. I didn't see a need to wake him until I knew what time we needed to be anywhere."

"Alright." Bubblegum nodded, but her face showed some hesitation, "Fionna, I wouldn't normally ask this, but if you could do me a favour and keep an eye on Finn I'd appreciate it."

Fionna raised an eyebrow and inclined her head, signalling Bubblegum to continue.

"This just seems too... sudden. He really seems to trust Flame Princess, but they have a history and I don't want that to blind him to how fishy this all seems. If she's still allied with her father, then today's 'plan' is a perfect way to get the Ice King and Finn into the Fire Kingdom where they can get taken out. And if that happens then we're all doomed. Please, if you think something is up try and talk to Finn about it. He seems to trust you, and I'd hate to see anything happen to you all if this isn't on the level."

"Ok princess." Fionna responded carefully, not letting her tone betray her own thoughts. Bubblegum had a point, this was a perfect ruse to get the most powerful members of their side to waltz right into enemy territory. That said Fionna had the same feeling that she knew Finn did; that this was the right thing to do. Fionna hadn't gotten an evil vibe off of the Flame Princess in the little time they'd interacted, but Fionna knew that she'd been tricked before as well. She watched as Bubblegum turned to go and reached out her hand to stop the princess departing.

"Bubblegum wait!" Fionna took a moment to clarify what she wanted to say before continuing, "I know that this is all a big mess, but I really think you need to trust Finn on this one. He might have a history with Flame Princess, but that also means he knows her, and I believe that he knows what's right here. I'm not saying that you have to come with us and guarantee a war, but if Finn's history is anything like mine, our hunches are usually pretty solid. And we both think that this is the best bet we have to stop a war from happening. I know it isn't all 'scientific', but you can't just disregard anything that doesn't come from your lab or your equipment!" Fionna took a sharp breath in after finishing, realizing that she'd totally overstepped her bounds. She'd started talking to Bubblegum but her words had very quickly become infused with all of the frustrations she had with Gumball''s oh-so-similar behaviour. She looked at Bubblegum sheepishly, hoping that the princess wouldn't freak out at her.

Bubblegum eyed Fionna with a critical look, her face turning passive and hard to read for Fionna. A tense silence hung between the two, before Bubblegum simply turned on her hell and walked further into the castle. "Stupid!" Fionna whispered to herself and slapped her forehead. She couldn't help but feel like she'd just made a big mistake, but she closed her eyes and took a breath, stopping herself from running after Bubblegum and trying to apologize. She had said what she wanted to say, and even if she'd regret it later Fionna held out some hope that maybe Bubblegum had listened to her, if only a little. The adventuress decided she'd gotten herself into enough trouble for the time being and cut her losses, heading back to the guestroom to find Finn.

* * *

**A/N:** Trying to write with a bit more detail in actions, looking for a balance between keeping things moving and making things feel alive. Also, to the person who wanted to see Marceline, I'd love to be able to provide her but I refuse to shoehorn a character in for the sake of them just being there. She'll show up in the stuff I write after this though, if that's any consolation :P


End file.
